Rights, privilege and access

At some point, some one has to ask if access to firearms in the United States is a little too easy. If the application of the Second Amendment is perhaps just a little too broad. Let us, for a moment actually look at what the amendment actually says:

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.

OK, so the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Meaning that if you have a weapon, your rights are pretty well spelled out. My problem here is there is nothing here about the acquisition of those arms and that is what needs to be looked at more closely. At the moment, If you are a felon you cannot legally buy a firearm. If you suffer a mental condition, you cannot legally buy a firearm. At least, that is what the law says. Clearly, the law in fact and the law in practice are not quite following the same track.

There is nothing that says buying a firearm has to be a simple as buying a hammer at a Home Depot. In fact, it is harder to buy allergy medicine at the corner pharmacy than it is to get a firearm in many parts of the United States today. Oh, there are supposed to be background checks, waiting periods and positive verification, but the reality, as clearly spelled out over the past week is that these measures are little more than smoke and mirrors, put in place by those that oppose any restrictions on firearms to do little more than placate those that would see them, to the greatest extent possible, kept out of the hands of those that should not have them.

The other thing that is mentioned, and has come up by comparison with Switzerland, is the term well regulated. This is not "Bubba," a brew and three friends shooting of a couple dozen rounds on a Saturday afternoon because there is no football on. This is a trained, disciplined force ready to react at a moment's notice. You could argue that I just defined the military, and in some cases, I have done just that. But militias to me are much less well defined. A bad analogy is they would be like the neighbourhood watch in structure or a CERT. People that have gone through regularized, repeatable training, with routine refreshers including drills and practice. That is what separates a militia from just a group of thugs and falls very nicely into the method for better controlling weapons in the country.