Last week was a tragic one for the state of Illinois and our nation. It began with a shopping-mall killing in Oregon, then a federal court struck down the Illinois gun control statute and on Friday we had the horrible massacre of children and school officials in Connecticut. I am saddened by the thought that these extreme acts of violence will unfortunately continue to be frequent because of the unrestricted gun provisions of the Constitution. Reasonable attempts to limit gun availability are invariably struck down by the federal courts because of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
In 1919 we changed the Constitution to prohibit the use of alcohol, and in 1933 we eliminated that same constitutional amendment. In 1951 we passed the amendment that limits the president to two terms, thus taking away from the people the power to determine how long a president may serve. If we can make those kind of changes to the Constitution, then we can make a change to the Second Amendment so as to restrict the free and unlimited use of guns.
Someone in a rage or on drugs or alcohol seldom kills another person with a knife or baseball bat but with a gun. The Second Amendment was probably inserted because of the then-recent War of Independence and the dangers of the frontier. Those justifications no longer exist, and our society is cursed with this provision of the Constitution. It is time to seriously consider a constitutional amendment so we can eventually protect our citizens from the catastrophic consequences of unrestricted guns.
Col. Lee R. Pitzer • O'Fallon, Ill.
Retired, U.S. Air Force
