Pistol Packing Mamas, Papas & Kiddies

H. L. Mencken said one time that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. I think of this every time some new twist pops up that will allow more of us to "pack heat" anytime, anywhere: bars, churches, schools. What on earth are we thinking?

No, don't tell me that the writers had this in mind when they penned the Second Amendment. If we back off a bit, take a deep breath, turn Rush off as well as the NRA propaganda machine, it seems obvious what the founders had in mind. There was no NYPD or its equivalents back then, let alone professional military. They were writing for a professionally unarmed public, saying that in this newly established free land, you have a right -- maybe even a duty -- to own a musket so that if we ever need to call up a militia the means will be there for us to do that. To interpret the second amendment, as the Bush vs. Gore Supreme Court has done, as some sort of carte blanche for every man woman and child in America to walk around armed to the teeth, just, it seems to me, strains credulity to its limits.

What really bothers me is that this "shoot 'em up" wild west society we have morphed into, plus our determination to keep juicing up the criminals that our less than perfect justice system deems worthy of death, crosses us out of the list of civilized societies and puts us on that other list where you find the likes of North Korea and Syria.

But I do not despair. I have not given up on my dreams. My hope rests on those who are coming along -- the aging Boomers and their children, the Millennials. I have hope for this country that I love, and deep in my heart I really do believe that we shall overcome some day.