The Second Amendment wasn’t written to preserve hunting rights or to promote self-defense. It was penned by men who had just liberated a nation and were oriented toward maintaining the rights and freedoms of the people. One of the hurdles they had to overcome from the beginning of the Revolutionary War was largely because of a British ban on firearms and ammunition, making it nearly impossible to fight against an oppressive governing body.

The Founding Fathers built a system of checks and balances. Executive, legislative and judicial branches were designed to be able to provide some accountability. The Second Amendment was the ultimate check and balance on government, where power was designed to remain in the hands of the people if things ran amok.

Situations like what happened in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Israel and Gaza are hard to fathom in America, but not impossible. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to envision a president refusing to yield the executive branch of government after losing an election. That is exactly the type of situation that the Second Amendment was designed to empower us to fight against.

We all agree that mass shootings are horrific abominations. School-aged children are currently taught to live in perpetual fear and anxiety and have never been more mentally strained. Students need to be assured that we can keep the monsters at bay. Practical solutions must be sought without giving up our most fundamental of rights.

Ted Bennett
Scarborough

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