Gun ruling brings dusk of humanity

The recent decision by the Supreme Court to allow citizens of the United States to bear arms with few limitations has more to say about this society than the expanded individual freedoms one interprets from the Constitution.

For the last 200 years, we have interpreted the right to bear arms to satisfy our personal and preferential ideology, to protect ourselves almost at all cost.

Anachronistically, we have misconstrued and now misapply this amendment. We have distorted its meaning and now will continue to do so with even more disastrous results.

Whether we're the perpetrator or the victim, whether we're part of an intended or unintended consequence, whether we're innocent or guilty, we cannot escape the fateful destiny that the highest court of the land has prescribed for us.

We have squared the circle by defining ourselves in terms of all-out conflict to make self defense or any superficial facade to defend us from ourselves paramount.

The decision by the court now relieves us from searching for the sources of our anger and the basic causes for our enmity toward each other.

We now have the legally granted freedom to lay this research aside to preserve our lives, promote our liberties, and pursue our happiness at the expense of all others.

Rather than being at the dawn of humanity, we have arrived at the dusk of it.

James D. Cook

Streamwood