To the Editor:
On this Independence Day (July 4, 2016) I am reading Paul Carlock’s letter (“Gross Misreading of the Second Amendment,” The Connection, June 29-July 5, 2016) setting forth his views on the meaning of the Second Amendment. In his letter he is suggesting that our Senator, Tim Kaine, and our Congressman, Gerry Connolly, “simply do not understand history.” Well, I don’t know how well either of these gentlemen understand history, but I sure hope they have a better grasp of it than does he. His insistence on his understanding of what he refers to as “the truth behind the Founder’s intent when they wrote the Second Amendment,” gives one pause. Let’s review! Our nation was founded on July 4, 1776. Our Founding Fathers were those who, on that day, pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. During the course of the war that followed their proclamation of the creation of our nation, 13 of the 56 Founding fathers were killed or died from wounds and hardships caused by the war. But the infant Republic they had founded prevailed. Some years later, a determined group of men led by Alexander Hamilton decided they didn’t much care for the way the country was governed and constructed a new form of government with less Democracy and a much more powerful central government. But Alexander Hamilton, despite all the musical hoopla on Broadway, was not a “Founding Father.” (He is more correctly referred to as a “Framer.”) In fact, of the 56, Founding Fathers only a handful played any role in writing the Constitution or any of its amendments, and only six Founders signed the final document. Consequently, it’s a bit of a stretch to claim to be able to discern what the Founding Fathers intended. They were, for the most part, hardly involved.
Peter M. Storm
Vienna