
<DOC>
<DOCNO>
WSJ920114-0145
</DOCNO>
<DOCID>
920114-0145.
</DOCID>
<HL>
   Letters to the Editor:
   Smile When You Say Gun Control
</HL>
<DATE>
01/14/92
</DATE>
<SO>
WALL STREET JOURNAL (J), PAGE A15
</SO>
<RE>
NORTH AMERICA (NME)
UNITED STATES (US)
</RE>
<LP>
   In his "Gun Control Is Constitutional" (Counterpoint,
op-ed page, Dec. 12), the American Enterprise Institute's
Robert A. Goldwin's principal concern, it seems, is to deny
that the right to keep and bear arms precludes the power to
regulate gun ownership and use. Few would disagree. Even
activities protected by the First Amendment may be regulated
when they threaten the rights of others.
   But Mr. Goldwin also writes that "The right to bear arms
protected in the Second Amendment has to do directly with `a
well-regulated militia'"; thus, arguably, he continues, "if
you want to own a gun, sign up with the National Guard."
Clearly, this goes well beyond regulating to protect the
rights of others. This would condition the "right" to keep
and bear arms on joining the National Guard.
</LP>
<TEXT>
   Mr. Goldwin's mistake stems from his having confused a
necessary with a sufficient condition. The Second Amendment,
in its language and its history, makes plain that the need
for a well-regulated militia is a sufficient condition for
the right to keep and bear arms. Yet Mr. Goldwin treats it as
a necessary condition, which enables him to conclude that
Congress could deny an individual the right to own a gun if
he did not join the National Guard.
   Mr. Goldwin makes this mistake, in turn, because he has
misread Madison's original version of the Second Amendment,
which exempted conscientious objectors from military service.
Thus he says that "In this version, `bearing arms' must mean
`to render military service,' or why else would there have to
be an exemption for religious reasons? What right must not be
infringed? The right of the people to serve in the militia."
   Plainly, any conscientious-objector provision would arise
not from a right but from a duty to serve in the militia. Yet
Mr. Goldwin believes the amendment means, as he later says,
"that the right to bear arms meant the right to serve in the
militia." Thus does he reduce the first of these rights to
the second, when clearly it is much broader.
   Roger Pilon
   Senior Fellow and Director
   Center for Constitutional Studies
   CATO Institute
   Washington
   ---
   The militia is not the National Guard but rather the
people of the original states. In Ohio, we have an Ohio
militia that is not a part of the National Guard. The fear of
standing armies and the control these armed men gave a
central government was foremost in the Framers' minds when
writing the Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson moved to prevent
this type of power in a few people's hands by the Second
Amendment. He stated, "No free man shall ever be debarred the
use of arms."
   The addition in the early drafts of a
conscientious-objector clause was added for the preservation
of religious freedoms, which the Colonists had not had in
England. It is unfortunate today's "scholars" seem to spend
their time picking apart history and the great thoughts of
the visionary men who formed this country.
   In my personal celebration of this 200-year-old document,
I have pledged the following: I will give up my freedom of
speech when they cut out my tongue; I will give up my right
to worship when they have slain my God and myself; I will
assemble with the people of my choice even when they are
imprisoned, and I will give up my rifle when they pry my cold
dead fingers from around it.
   Samuel R. Bush III
   Cincinnati
   ---
   Let those who want guns join the National Guard, says Mr.
Goldwin. Ah, the sanctimonious arrogance of it. What gives
Mr. Goldwin the right to deny mine when I abide by the laws?
   He stresses the differences between the world of 1791 and
today to suit his prejudice. He studiously ignores other
major differences between 1791 and today.
   In 1791, punishment was swifter and surer. Plea bargaining
was not epidemic; judges did not provide revolving doors on
prisons. There was no army of drug dealers and junkies
preying on the public. If anything, the reasons for citizens
to own weapons for self-defense are more compelling today
than they were in 1791.
   Let Mr. Goldwin show us how he would make us safer in our
homes and we might understand his wish to strip away our only
sure defense.
   Carl Roessler
   San Francisco
   ---
   Mr. Goldwin's article is a casebook example of convoluted
logic.
   Consider that George Mason (1725-1792), the great Virginia
constitutionalist, defined quite clearly the meaning of the
word "militia" during a debate in 1788. "I ask who are the
militia?" he said, and then answered his own question with
the words: "They consist now of the whole people" (emphasis
added). Mason's credentials are reliable: He is the author of
the first 10 amendments to our Constitution. {There is a
debate about who actually drafted the amendments -- Mason or
Madison}.
   Further, a 1903 U.S. law defined the militia as not only
the National Guard, but all able-bodied males between 18 and
45.
   I, along with millions of other Americans, am not against
sensible gun control, i.e., licensing, character searches,
etc. What I resent is Mr. Goldwin's agenda, which is removal
of all guns from American citizens through the implementation
of total regulations; a direct violation of the Second
Amendment through nefarious means.
   Edward F. Menninger
   Sterling Heights, Mich.
   ---
   Mr. Goldwin suggests gun control via enlistment in the
National Guard. Swell idea. Updating the right to bear arms
from 1791 to 1991, when I report for service I'll bring, as
required, a few items consistent with the current
infantryman's inventory: a Barett Light .50 semiautomatic
sniper rifle, so I can reach out and touch people half a mile
away; a Squad Automatic Weapon firing 5.56mm rounds at the
rate of a whole lot per second out of 30-round clips or
hundred-round belts; a 40mm grenade launcher . . . but you
get the idea. Then, as a thoroughly modern, well-regulated
militiaman, I'll take my weapons home, just as did Morgan's
riflemen, and the musket bearers of Lexington and Concord,
and the Colonial light artillerists.
   Andrew L. Isaac
   Canterbury, N.H.
</TEXT>
</DOC>

