Amendment's literal meaning
By The Bakersfield Californian
Regarding the Feb. 1 article "Conservatives make gun issue new rallying cry": It shocks me to hear the entire population misinterpreting the Second Amendment just because they keep hearing the wrong interpretation every day in the news. I hate getting involved in telling the facts and getting universally ignored because people don't like to hear the facts. However, I can't bear it any longer, so here are the facts.
The Second Amendment reads, "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."
If the last part of that sentence, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," were a separate sentence, then the well-regulated militia could reasonably be ignored.
However it is not a separate sentence. Therefore, it begs the question: What is the definition of a well-regulated militia in today's terms?
Answer: The entire U.S. population cannot -- cannot -- become a well-regulated militia.
Today, our well-regulated militia is made up of three parts: (1) our police departments, (2) our National Guard and (3) our military reserves.
Following that set of facts, we can build a defensible and reasonable gun-regulation program around our well-regulated militia.
Betty Mitchell
Tehachapi
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