The direct text from the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights states: "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." I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that the Founding Fathers didn't want citizens to have the right to bear arms. This was already settled in the Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) in which the 5-4 majority opinion was that limiting the right to bear arms to government militia would create the type of state that the amendment was specifically trying to protect the American people from. The Supreme Court Justices also concluded that to ban handguns from being kept in a home, to ban a firearm commonly used for protection from being kept in an area commonly in need of protection, is in violation of the Second Amendment.
I fully agree with the Supreme Court's decision. However, it is important to note that Heller was a D.C. police officer. In order to become a police officer, you must go through and pass a written exam, law enforcement essay exam, personal history statement, background investigation, physical ability test, oral interview, medical evaluation and psychological evaluation. It was clear from the beginning of the case that Heller was of sound mind and in no way a threat to society, which brings me to the clause "being necessary to the security of a free state."
I understand that the Founding Fathers meant that citizens need to have the right to keep and bear firearms in the case of an oppressive government in order to keep America the free state that they intended for it to be, but the document needs to live and adjust with changes of society. A semi-automatic assault rifle is in no way a necessity for an ordinary citizen to have security. It isn't even a necessity for hunting. A semi-automatic assault rifle in the hands of someone full of hate puts the security of everyone living in the free state immediately in danger.
"Well-regulated" is what needs to be seen. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term well-regulated means for something to be in proper working order, calibrated correctly, and functioning as expected. I sure hope that 133 mass shootings in just 2016 alone is not considered "proper working order." Something needs to be done about the countless firearms bought at gun shows, online or through illegal trafficking with no background checks nor questions asked. Enough is enough. There needs to be regulations that keep the firearms in the hands of those who use them for protection or hunting and away from those who want to harm.
Let's do it for the victims, survivors, friends and family of Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech and Orlando. Let's do it for our constitutional right to life.
