Guns, again

[Ron Force <rforce@moscow.com>]

Not to start up the thread again, but those who are interested may wish
to check out the October 1999 issue of Harper's,  "Your Constitution is
Killing You: A Reconsideration of the Right to Bear Arms" by Daniel
Lazare.  He traces the origins of the 2nd Amendment, the concept of
Militias and concludes that the "Founding Fathers" did mean for the
individual right to own guns to be absolute.

However, he contends "...From a string of coastal settlement, the United
States has grown into a republic of 270 million people...a congested,
polluted society filled with traffic jams, shopping malls, and anomic
suburbs in which the eighteenth century right to bear arms is as out of
place as silk knee britches and tricorn hats..."

But how to change it? Because thirteen states representing as little as
4.5% of the population can block constitutional change--"Since no one
would have any trouble coming up with a list of thirteen states in the
South or West for whom repealing the Second Amendment would be akin to
repealing the four Gospels, the issue is moot."

He concludes "There is simply no solution to the gun problem within the
confines of the U.S. Constitution..." and then says that the
Constitution's hold on our society is so absolute that it prevents us
from even thinking of other ways to do things.

Provocative article-- don't flame me, I'm only reporting what this
author has to say.  Sorry , it's not on the Web-- paper only.  Check
your local library or news stand.

--
Ron  Force
rforce@moscow.com
Moscow, Idaho U.S.A.