This is no longer the 18th Century & muskets & cannons won't cut the mustard

To The Daily Sun,

The issue of school shootings has plagued our nation for years, and can no longer be ignored. I believe the most reasonable and effective way to protect students here in New Hampshire would be to ban the sale of bump-stocks, increase the intensity of background checks, thoroughly monitor private gun sales, and consider the ban of automatic assault rifles. I understand that many people disagree with these measures on a constitutional basis, so in this letter, I use that founding document and the context in which it was written to defend my stance.

Many supporters of the rights of gun-owners claim that the regulations I would like to see put in place would go against the original intentions of our founding fathers. This is completely true. When Madison introduced the Second Amendment in 1791, his intention was for guns to be used to allow the people to rise up against an oppressive government, not to go hunting or protect themselves from home intruders. The problem with this argument lies in the drastic differences between modern America and the America of the late 18th Century. When the Constitution was drafted, farmers armed with muskets and cannons could rise up against a rogue government because the governments of the time were also armed with muskets and cannons. Today, a group of private citizens, even if they were armed with assault rifles and bump stocks, would not be able to challenge the airplanes, tanks, and bombs of the U.S. military. Unless private citizens are given access to grenade launchers and atomic weapons, the original intentions of the Second Amendment cannot be upheld.

I would also like to point out that the men who drafted the Constitution and later passed the Second Amendment were just that — men. Many in American society have elevated these founding fathers to an almost divine stature, but they were human, and clearly capable of making mistakes (one of the most blatant being the decision that a slave is worth three-fifths of a white person). Therefore we should not base our current gun-control policy on the intentions of these men, but rather on the needs of our citizens.

The best, and perhaps the only way to provide for the common defense of our students, our schools, and our nation is to no longer rely on 18th Century politicians to guide us, and to take action based on knowledge, reason, and necessity.

Connor Leggett

Gilford