Humm letter: Second Amendment

Charles Bonner’s March 6 Guest Opinion on the context of the Second Amendment shows his abysmal ignorance of the recent Supreme Court decisions on this issue, which clearly state that the Second Amendment recognizes the right to keep and bear arms as an individual right flowing from the “fundamental human right of self-defense,” not dependent on militia membership.

The Declaration of Independence is the legal foundation for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and was written by the same Founders. The Declaration lists many unalienable Rights, but only one Duty: “But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government ....” That is the context for the Second Amendment’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Samuel Adams has described Bonner’s mindset: “If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” (Aug. 1, 1776)

This story was originally published March 13, 2016 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Humm letter: Second Amendment."