A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Bill of Rights Amendment 2

With the recent anniversary of the Columbine tragedy (why do we mark these things? I feel an essay coming on.) Talk amongst the politicos and the pundits once again turns to gun control.

I have strong opinions on this subject (big surprise) If one reads the Bill of Rights it states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. "

The first of that clause " A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State" is a caveat to the rest of the clause. In other words "We need a militia so we won't take away your guns."

In the times that the Bill of rights was written the U.S. did not have an established military. In order to defend our selves we relied on a voluntary militia that provided their own guns. Therefore the writers of the Bill of Rights put the gun clause in for national safety.

Nowadays our borders are secured and we have a standing military so by a strict reading of the Bill of Rights the right to bear arms is pretty much null and void.

I am not saying that the government should take a way all our guns but anything short of that is up for grabs. National licensing and registrations? If you need a license to drive a car then it is only logical to have the same thing for guns. Mandatory trigger locks? This is a no brainer we need to do everything to protect our kids.

The NRA conveniently does not mention the "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," part of the clause. If you believe them it states the right to bear arms is an absolute.

The problem I have with the NRA is that their power over the government coupled with their extremist views on guns is hindering the nation to enact common sense legislation. I feel special interest groups are an anathema to the representation of the "Government for the people by the people." principle upon which we built our country.

The NRA is so extreme in their views that they don't even see how ridiculous their own speakers are. I once saw a representative from the NRA claim he hunts quail with an Uzi. I don't know if you know what a quail looks like but they are mighty small birds and an uzi would just obliterate them. Another claim the NRA makes is that guns are completely safe with the proper training but they offer an accidental death and dismemberment insurance to all their members, that just cracks me up.

So what is the answer to this problem I have few ideas.

1. enforce all the laws on the books that already work to control guns. More laws is not what is necessarily needed.

2. Admit that we, as a country, are in a sick little arms race and move to do something about it

3. Self control

The government can't, or shouldn't be relied on, to fix everything. I think that "We the people" should take this problem on ourselves. We should not be contributing to the problem by buying more guns and we should work toward getting rid of the guns that are already there. We also work towards teaching our kids about violence and the consequences thereof.

And we should communicate with our leaders. Part of the power of the NRA is that they are a vocal minority. We the majority should let our leader know that they don't speak for us and let them know how we feel about guns.