I DO not like guns, but I like less a government denying me or any citizen the right "to keep and bear arms." While some may argue that the Second Amendment grants citizens this right for the purpose of forming "well-regulated" state militias, that is not what the amendment says. Just as the First Amendment addresses the rights of free speech, peaceable assembly, freedom to worship, etc., as those accorded to individuals, so, too, does the Second Amendment address the right "to keep and bear arms" as an individual's right and not the right of the state over the individual.
Whether at the state or national level, government in this country rules by the consent of the governed. We the people are the masters of government, not the other way around. When a government is allowed to disarm the people or to make it illegal to keep arms, that government is on a slippery slope toward tyranny.
Ironically, the 30-year ban on guns in Washington, D.C., has resulted in a rise in gun-related crimes. Law-abiding citizens, when deprived of their constitutional right to own guns, fall prey to those who have not qualms about acquiring illegal firearms. I am grateful that the justices have not so politicized the Supreme Court that they would surrender to public pressure and disregard the intent of the first 10 amendments of the US Constitution. The Second Amendment, like all the others comprising the Bill of Rights, was written specifically to safeguard our rights as individuals.
KATHRYN GRAMMER
West Falmouth
