My Dear Sherrod (open letter to Sherrod Brown, US Senator),
Thank you for your email dated this morning regarding firearm related legislation.
You are correct in saying shootings around the United States are far too common.
In your email, you reflect on your common sense gun safety protections as well as looking forward to passing gun safety measures during the 177th Congress.
My response is to demonstrate your ignoring of law which surpasses any legislation you may write during the 117th Congress – the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. I am positive when I reached out to you, I asked a simple question – how do your actions NOT violate the Supreme law of the land.
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.”
When the Second Amendment was written, there was no standing army, there was no militia other than the citizenry. As a consequence, referring to a “well-regulated militia” as a government-controlled military having the right to keep and bear arms would be an oxymoron. What government is history has not had a military? Therefore a well-regulated militia as many define it today would make the Second Amendment an illogical amendment.
Secondly, government has never, over time, been a friend of a free State. Quite the opposite. History is replete with examples of nations evolving from a free state to a dictatorship or oligarchy, thanks to an over-reaching government. The newly formed nation of the United States had, less than a decade before, been involved in a war to defeat such tyrants. As such, Americans believing government to be the friend and protector of freedom is a distortion of history.
Thirdly, it is the right of the people, the individual to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court has, multiple time, ruled the same.
Lastly, the synonyms of the word infringed include abide, adhere, adhere to, by the book, clean up your act, conform to/with, contempt, enforce, legit, obey, on the right/wrong side of the law, pervert, respect, stick and tamper. ALL your regulations and rules and measures and protections violate this word and as such, encroach on the Second Amendment.
John Adams wrote the US Constitution was written for a moral and religious people and was wholly inadequate for any other type of people. I suggest the problem with gun violence in the USA is a moral issue, not a legislative problem. The same immorality which justifies extermination of our most fragile of the citizenry is also at the core of gun violence.
As an engineer, I know until you find the core of a problem, you won’t repair the problem. You’ll simply put band-aids on a poor to mediocre design.
The same immorality is also at work, spending trillions YOU never intend to pay back, which will result in financial slavery for the nation’s children and grand-children.
Until you solve this moral dilemma, I suggest Congress stop legislating more law, rules, measures and regulations. That’s the first step. Otherwise, you will continue to repeat your mistakes just as consistently as a dog returning to its vomit.
Sincerely,
Ted Leithart
