May Congress finally make a difference in our country as regards guns. As of 6/23/22, “The Senate has begun consideration of a narrow bipartisan gun safety bill that could become the first gun control measure to pass Congress in decades.…many Democrats and gun safety advocates are celebrating the bipartisan legislation as an important incremental step — with Democrats promising further action on guns in the future.”

The right to bear arms, as it is typically understood today, is not a Second Amendment right. That right, as typically understood today, is guaranteed by the Supreme Court in Heller v District of Columbia, not by the Second Amendment.

In the view of many, including myself, the court ignored the first half of the amendment, which reads, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.”  Today we call the “well-regulated Militia” the “National Guard.”  We also have a tendency to ignore the phrase “well-regulated.”

Missing from the court’s deliberations, and rejected by the court, is any consideration of the constitutional significance of what is necessary to maintain the “security of a free State.”

Ask any school student if they feel secure.

Roger Hull