Letter: Consider context of Second Amendment

"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."

At times like these, immediately after another gun-related tragedy, we often hear that the right to walk around with a gun in the United States is somehow sacred. After all, it says so in the Second Amendment: " ... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." But we seldom hear anyone quote the first 13 words of that same sentence - and the actual reason the people who wrote it. They were patriots who were worried about being wrenched by force back into the British Empire, an intelligent, frightened group of men who knew that we had little organized defense against that likelihood. They stated their rationale upfront: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State ..."

Does anyone really believe that our Founding Fathers intended that unhinged nut cases or disgruntled teens should someday have uncontrolled access to assault weapons?

William Murray

Palatine