Gun Control and the Constitution

There is no constitutional provision for individual ownership of guns, despite the assertion of Glenn Harlan Reynolds (“2nd Amendment: Something for Everyone,” Commentary, Dec. 5). Article 1, Section 8 is specific about the issue. Congress is to “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia.” The U.S. Constitution also directs the militia to “suppress insurrections,” which is just the opposite of what Reynolds argues. There is no mention about private ownership of guns.

The Second Amendment doesn’t countenance private ownership of guns, either. Instead, the Second Amendment specifies the need for a “well regulated” militia, and only Congress has the power to regulate a militia.

Reynolds also urges that tyrannical governments can be overthrown because modern armies have consistently lost to armed civilians. Yet not one of his examples involved internal rebellion against a tyrannical government. Reynolds would have done better to look to our own Civil War as an example.

DAVID M. WYMAN

Los Angeles

* Thank you for printing Reynolds’ article on the Second Amendment. It is the best perspective I have ever read in The Times on the gun issue.

The trust Reynolds hopes will develop between gun owners and regulators can only come to pass if travesties like New York’s gun-registration-this-year, confiscation-next-year programs are reversed. This sort of governmental ruse takes the call for goodwill off the shoulders of gun owners.

BRUCE ARMSTRONG

Santa Barbara

* One must wonder what the reaction of the Founding Fathers would be if they had been confronted by today’s proliferation of guns in America. Reynolds’ arguments should be useful to present-day street gangs protesting government denial of their vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

LOUIS ST. MARTIN

Pomona

* As a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, I can assure Reynolds that the fate of the European Jews and Gypsies would not have been different by having guns at their disposal. A naive statement indeed, since Jews and Gypsies were highly outnumbered by the Nazis and their collaborators (the people of Hungary, Slovakia, France, Poland, etc.).

The Second Amendment is totally obsolete today. Times have changed and people have changed within those times.

ALICE SHRAGAI

Woodland Hills

* Re “Fear of Guns Tips the Scale,” editorial, Dec. 2:

What is the difference between these two questions: “Do you favor reducing the national debt?” and “Will you write a check for $5,000, payable to the U.S. Treasury, to do your part to reduce the national debt?”

Now, what is the difference between these two questions: “Do you favor tougher gun control laws as a means to reduce crime?” and “Will you restrict your right to lawfully own a firearm and voluntarily surrender all handguns currently in your possession as a means to reduce crime?”

If the UCI researchers want meaningful poll results, they should ask the right question. The scale has been tipped by the alarming escalation of brazen, gang- and drug-related crime. The police cannot stop the problem on the street. Why should I believe that they can stop it if it comes to my front door?

DAVID C. BRITTON

Anaheim