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I am writing to applaud Richard Edlunds understanding of the Second Amendment to our constitution in the editorial titled Article offers insight into gun laws. His conclusion is that the gun lobbys interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated on the American people.

A simple reading of the entire Second Amendment clearly communicates that the purpose of the amendment is to assure that militias have arms available to allow those militias to perform their intended purposes.

A historical understanding of the times the amendment was written reveals its purpose.

1. Militias were the standard method of providing defenses for communities, states and the entire country.

2. Militias relied on members to supply their own arms. No private arms; no defense.

3. The Founders, for many reasons, were suspicious of and wanted to avoid chancing the potential dangers they envisioned in standing armies.

4. The survival of communities, states and the entire country was dependent on individual well-regulated militia members supplying their own arms.

5. The founding population did use these same arms for self-defense since they had no other alternative.

Today's conditions are quite different from the conditions of our founding.

1. We have the strongest military in the world to protect our country.

2. We have National Guard units to both support our federal military and protect the states.

3. We have police, sheriff personnel and highway patrol units to protect our local citizenry.

4. None of the units mentioned above require individuals to supply their own arms.

5. Individuals can rely on all of the forgoing for their personal safety.

Times have changed from our founding. The arms referred to in the Second Amendment are no longer needed to support our various organizations that are designed to provide our current defensive needs. Elimination of the second amendment is unnecessary. Simply read the entire amendment, understand its initial intent and use it to help assure that our federal government does nothing to weaken or eliminate the various organizations that have replaced our well regulated Militias of the past.

The development of this country was violent and guns, both personal and governmental, were a large part of what is now viewed as past progress. One only has to compare the mayhem committed by individuals with guns in our country with other modern countries to realize that we are doing something wrong when it comes to managing these dangerous implements for public safety.

Guns, in my opinion, should be considered what they are. Very dangerous if misused. Other dangerous items such as vehicles, dangerous medications and other things that can become a public menace if improperly used are regulated by law.

It is well past time where this country, for its own protection, needs to regulate firearms in a responsible way for the public's protection and stop reading only the Second Amendments last two phrases and include the first two phrases to provide understanding of the intent. Reading relevant history can also be useful.

Ronald L. Feller

Aiken

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Letter: Guns should be well-regulated | Letters to the Editor | postandcourier.com - Charleston Post Courier