In the intractable shooting war over the Second Amendment, obfuscation is still the first weapon of choice for the gun-obsessed.
Denis Castro’s letter (Herald, Dec. 29) employed this intellectually dishonest tactic attempting to blur the message of an op-ed piece about the epidemic levels of U.S. gun violence.
In his cogent op-ed (Herald, Dec. 27), local 11th-grader Henry Isenberg noted the effectiveness of gun legislation to slow the carnage in states that regulate weapons sales using background checks and bans of certain types of guns.
While Isenberg realistically admits “there’s no getting rid of guns,” he points to studies that show a direct correlation between common-sense gun regulations and the reduction in the number of gun-related homicides, suicides and accidents.
He also addressed the historical context of the Second Amendment, which was written for a time when the available weapons were single-loading long guns with limited accuracy.
The obfuscation begins when Castro whines that Isenberg’s op-ed was “poorly researched” (not true), which then deepens into a diatribe about the meaning of “regulated” in the 18th century.
While Isenberg’s thesis is that gun violence in our 21st century America is rampant and uncontrolled, Castro instead delves into what he imagines motivated the founders’ interests in guns. Citing no sources, he fantasizes that the framers of the Constitution intended that citizens of the far-future be armed with “the newest technology” and that their greatest concern was that such weapons be maintained in working order.
While the Founders were geniuses, they weren’t clairvoyant.
Trying to read the minds of men who lived 250 years ago is a pointless exercise when we, in theory, have minds of our own.
The gun-obsessed argue that individual Americans must be armed with military weaponry to do battle with ISIS, home-invading druggies, immigrants and our own democratically elected government.
In our nation bristling with armaments, we cower behind locked doors, fearful of our own shadows.
Allow me to do some retroactive mind reading of my own: The founders would be appalled to see what has become of the former “Home of the Brave.”
Larry A. Bollinger
Durango
