Background checks
To the editor:
I take the issue of gun ownership seriously. I also take the Second Amendment seriously as well. The recent concern over background checks to purchase a firearm raises an important point that thus far has garnered little conversation. Should we agree that all the Bill of Rights protections are equal? If so, now there is an intense light focused on this Second Amendment singling it out for special additional scrutiny, before being recognized. We do not require any background checks on the “freedom of speech” clause, and yet there are many who are offended by the writings of others. Mine included.
What about the, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble?” We see assemblies quite often, few are peaceful, some not so much, yet no one is calling for background checks on the participants. Why?
This next one gets a tad sticky; “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there,” yet this country did make the Mormons change some of its dictates in order to allow Utah to become a state. With the tremendous influx of followers of Islamic Law now arriving, it takes little reading to discover that there are many demands made upon the devout followers of Islam that clash drastically with the individual rights guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, CAIR notwithstanding! Must we then disregard the clause” prohibiting the free exercise thereof”?
The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments will also be exercised by Islamic Law tenants as well.
Let us now look at the Ninth Amendment. It states, “The Ninth Amendment recognizes that Americans have rights that are not listed in the Constitution.” Should the right to protect oneself be discarded because some people misuse that “right?” Can anyone deny that self- protection is above all others? What can possibly be more important to one than their safety? Does the Ninth Amendment convey a “right” to self- preservation?
One must be careful in the use of a can opener: the worms that issue forth may be many, unpredictable, and harmful!
Joseph L. Kibitlewski, PhD.
Cape Coral