LETTERS: MODERN GUNS UNFORSEEN BY FOUNDERS

To the editor:

Our Founding Fathers did a remarkable job of setting up a set of rules and guidelines for organizing the government of our country. Since then, as our world has changed, there have been amendments to our Constitution that either clarify or change the original document. If it were not for these amendments, Mary Nall probably would not be in a position to write a letter to the editor complaining about the right to bear arms, since she would still be a second-class citizen without the right, as a woman, to even vote in our elections.

I certainly don't claim to have the answer to the gun situation, but as I see it our country has changed a great deal in the last couple of centuries. Guns were an absolute necessity in our earlier history. A great many things were accomplished as a result of the law guaranteeing our right to bear arms. We maintained our independence, tamed a frontier and defended our homes and families in the absence of any law enforcement other than the local militia.

Our forefathers certainly did foresee many of the possible problems in our future, but they would be astounded at some of the changes in our country since their time -- among other things, the invention and availability of automatic weapons that can kill dozens of people in a few seconds. They certainly would not endorse their sale to just anyone who can come up with the money. They could not foresee the mobility of our population that makes it so easy to transport weapons across our country with no methods of control. This same mobility results in drive-by shootings, quick-and-easy robberies as well as the illegal transportation of drugs, a business that thrives on the easy access to automatic weapons and handguns.

They could not have foreseen a $2 billion annual business in these weapons, nor could they have envisioned the power than an industry this size could have on the laws of our country. These weapons manufacturers are using the National Rifle Association and inflaming much of the general public to simply make it easier to make their millions of dollars. They couldn't care less about the right to bear arms. They simply want the right to sell guns. These guns have been freely used to massacre our presidents, our public servants, our schoolchildren, innocent people caught in drive-by shootings, store clerks and people in every facet of our population.

I would be the first to defend our unrestricted right to buy and sell guns if I didn't know, as everyone must know, that much of the gun industry is targeting many of these guns to a specific market: the criminal element in our society. I would much rather see the so-called Saturday-night specials and easily portable automatic weapons banned completely from the market and allow their confiscation whenever they are found. This would make our lives much safer and would be safer for our law enforcement personnel. It must be very difficult for police officers to respond to a call when he or she knows that the other person could have weapons that are 10 times as lethal as their own.

I don't want to be forced to maintain an arsenal in my own home just so we can guarantee free and unrestricted sales of these guns to any idiot who walks in the door of a gun shop or a gun show. I know several legitimate gun collectors who have as many as 30 or 40 different guns, and I defend their right to own them. With that right, however, is the responsibility to be certain that they do not fall into the wrong hands. They should be protected from irresponsible people of all kinds such as children, untrained persons and especially burglars. If you are a legitimate buyer of rifles, shotguns and other firearms, you certainly can wait long enough to have a background check done to be sure that the person standing beside you at the gun counter was not released from prison the day before and simply needs some convenience-store money.

I do not believe in their right to bear these arms, and the only way to stop them is to regulate the possession of these weapons.

S.L. HODGE

Cape Girardeau