The right to bear semiautomatic war weapons?
Re: “Outsiders have no business meddling in US gun rights”, Letters, June 21.
As a card-carrying Americano Gringo Yankee Devil, I was intrigued by the diatribe from H Swint Friday (is that a pen name?) against foreigners who presume to meddle with our gun rights. It seems to me that we Americano GYDs have done more than our share of meddling in other nations’ affairs over the years, and turnabout ought to be fair play.
Changing one simple word in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution that safeguards the right to bear arms could solve the whole American gun problem. At the time that revered document was written, the gun of choice was the single-shot flintlock musket. After firing one shot, it had to be laboriously reloaded.
Strict constructionists of our constitution ought to note that 18th-century laws refer to 18th-century technology. We could save a lot of lives by changing “the right to bear arms” to “the right to bear muskets”.
Imagine the reaction of the customers of any nightclub on being confronted by a terrorist carrying a musket instead of an automatic weapon or an assault rifle. He might get off one shot, but they would beat him to death with their beer bottles before he could reload.
Ye Olde Pedant
Samut Prakan
