Letters to the Editor
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‘D.C.’s Gun Showdown’
Re: Kenneth Blackwell’s “D.C. Gun Showdown” [Oped, January 18-20, 2008]. Mr. Blackwell states, inner alia, that the right to keep and bear arms is one of the three civil rights … However, the second amendment is, at best, ambiguous.
It is not clear whether to keep and bear arms is an individual right or is a right pertaining to a militia. Thus, in interpreting the second amendment, the courts will, of necessity, be legislating its meaning.
Mr. Blackwell also states that one of the three civil rights is political free speech. The first amendment states that Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech, not limited to political speech.
It is true that the Pilgrims came here seeking religious freedom. However, they established a theocracy in their colony and punished dissenters.
As a result, Roger Williams, for one, was forced out of Massachusetts and founded Rhode Island.
GERALD SCHWARTZ
Tarrytown, N.Y.
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