¶ … Second Amendment to the United States Constitution states: "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." Advocates of civil rights and civil liberties constantly demand unhindered freedom of press, of speech, and religious freedom. But when the issue of the Second Amendment arises, many shy away or shun the concept of the personal right to bear arms. Suddenly political correctness supersedes personal freedom and constitutional ascendancy. This is not to say that the Constitution cannot be adapted to suit the needs of a changing society; on the contrary, the whole concept of amendments is based on the flexibility and adaptability of the United States of America and its Bill of Rights. But no matter how often the courts or the lobbyists rally in favor of or against "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," the result seems to remain in support of the preservation of the original Second Amendment. The right to bear arms remains a salient issue today, as pertinent as it was the two hundred-plus years ago when the Bill of Rights was penned. Even in light of the violence in American inner cities and in the wake of disasters like Columbine, the Second Amendment must be preserved. Advocates of gun control, while well meaning, base their arguments on faulty assumptions and equally faulty logic. Firearms are already regulated, as they should be. As preference is given to the states in their decision to enact firearm laws, there are almost fifty different interpretations of the Second Amendment. Gun control advocates propose that the sale, manufacture, and ownership of firearms be restricted even further. Licensing...

But who decides what the quotas should be? Brief and reliable background checks aren't good enough either, for it takes a good thirty days to research a customer's past. When we purchase a car, a vehicle potential of death and destruction, no background check is necessary. Credit or cash, the car is sold. That policy should apply equally to the sale of firearms. Gun control advocates also demand childproof guns. Instead of burdening the weapons industry with unnecessary and expensive gadgets that don't work jacks up prices and makes them inaccessible to the economically deprived. Instead, greater education is the key.
Just as sex education is sorely lacking in public schools, so is weapons education. Children are as mystified by guns as they are by their own bodies; we easily criticize the prudence of the religious right over outcries against safe sex campaigns. Yet we scoff, or worse, we decry, the introduction of gun smarts. Furthermore, we are ignoring deeper issues when we blame the weapons. "Guns don't kill people; people kill people" is a phrase we should all elevate above the cliche. Children open fire in schools not because there happened to be a gun lying around the house but because their anger seethed so strongly as to require pathological expression. Parents who educate their children on the dangers of firearms are contributing more to a safe society than parents who whine about childproof guns. Anyway, there is no such thing as a "safe" or "childproof" weapon. A program combining education with respect for the basic tenets of the Second Amendment is necessary to curb the upsurge in crime. After the events of September 11, it should…