A belated response to Jim

I would like to point out that we are the only western nation, and indeed one of the few nations in the world, with such lax gun restrictions. Why is this? The government at the time of the founding of our country was afraid of a tyrannical central government infringing on people's individual rights, like England did to the American colonies. The founding fathers, and Jefferson in particular, did not have faith in the ability of a government to remain uncorrupted. Thus, a way to keep the federal government in check was to guarantee that if it were to ever stamp on a state or states' rights, they would have a well-armed militia with which to revolt. This would more or less frighten the federal government into respecting the rights of smaller political entities, right down to the individual.

An argument could perhaps be made that what would be good for this country is indeed a well-armed state militia that would lead an armed revolt in response to the Patriot Act or wire-tapping or the needless military interventions, in both Iraq and past countries such as Vietnam. But the reality is that state militias are a thing of the past, and have been since the Civil War. At this point, the second ammendment is interpreted to protect and INDIVIDUAL'S right to bear arms, but one which is, I believe, inaccurate to the original intent of the framers'.

What Jim says about individuals owning arms as a line of defense against some sort of hypothetical invading army is, too, inaccurate. If an army was organized and armed enough to overcome our bloated military and national guard, then I highly doubt that scattered households would actually pose much difficulty.

In the end, loose gun laws mean there are more guns on the streets and easily accessible by criminals and children. The fact that America steadfastly hangs onto this antiquated "inalienable right" is stupid, and we should overturn the second ammendment immediately. The statistics support my position, since America's gun death totals far exceed other industrialized nations', even per capita. Get them off the streets and out of the lawbooks.