No need for American obsession with possessing lethal weapons

There is no doubt that we in Ireland had, and continue to have, troubles of our own that we have to focus on and set to right, but right now we cannot but feel for the trouble that our friends in the US have to contend with inside their own borders, i.e being held hostage to the dubious and anachronistic notion arising from the 2nd Amendment to their constitution — the right of the populace to bear arms.

When the constitution was being drafted over 220 years ago, the new political entity was a vastly different place in many ways: smaller population, largely rural, communities somewhat dispersed and isolated, and alert to the need to defend their revolutionary freedoms and ideas, compared to the present highly integrated, educated, regulated, complicated union.

It is hard to see the need for “militia” nowadays given the multiplicity of armed agencies to protect the country and people, such as the army, navy and air force, police force, state troopers, coast guard, FBI/CIA, etc, and more importantly, free speech, a free press, the courts and democratic elections.