LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Second Amendment has been misinterpreted – Tahlequah Daily Press

Editor, Daily Press:

Conservatives cannot have it both ways. They like to talk about original intent regarding the Constitution and laws. However, this doctrine only seems to apply when it agrees with their views.

Take, for instance, the reasoning for the recent Supreme Court ruling, which erased 50 years of progress and has returned women to the status of second-class citizens by overturning Roe v. Wade. They then turn around and want unfettered access to all kinds of guns, claiming the Second Amendment gives them that right. All of a sudden, the doctrine of originality is tossed out the window. Just read the wording.

Contrary to Thomas Sanco's allegation that the Secondnd Amendment was adopted to allow armed insurrection against the U.S. government, it was intended to allow people to possess firearms as part of a "well-regulated militia" to facilitate defense against enemies of our new nation. Right-wing radicals conveniently ignore the words "well-regulated militia." Then there is the fact that assault rifles did not exist at the time the Second Amendment was adopted. These gun absolutists are guilty of intellectual dishonesty at the least, and at worst are destroying the pillars of the rule of law and of our representative democracy.

In the Sept. 20 issue of the Tahlequah Daily Press, Thomas Sanco stooped to the old device of setting up a straw man to knock down. He portrayed President Biden as a fear mongering opponent of all guns in opposition to "pro-gun Americans." He falsely claimed to be supporting his argument with facts.

Fact No. 1: The president of the United States is not anti-gun and has stated so on numerous occasions. Fact No. 2: Assault weapons were utilized in nearly every single mass murder incident in this country. Fact No. 3: When assault weapons were banned, there were many fewer mass shootings than before the ban and since the ban was ended. He also cites FBI statistics on weapons used in murders. Yet he fails to mention those statistics are incomplete at best, since his crowd has been successful at disallowing requirements to report gun violence.

The bottom line is, Sanco does not understand or chooses to ignore the original intent of the Second Amendment, which was the law of the land until a recent conservative Supreme Court used twisted logic to give credence to the false assertion that the intent was to allow unfettered and unregulated access to firearms by every American. Our nation cannot survive if the absurd assertion is accepted that Americans have an "inalienable" right to possess guns to attack our own government.

David Nagle

Tahlequah

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Second Amendment has been misinterpreted - Tahlequah Daily Press