From Peter Gardner, Blawith, Cumbria, UK
Carrie Arnold describes the scale of gun-related deaths in the US (6 May, p 22). Not only is it horrific, it is ridiculous and unnecessary.
The finger of blame usually points at the Second Amendment to the , which, according to gun defenders, enshrines the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. But this is at best a misunderstanding, at worst a deliberate misrepresentation that ignores the full wording of that amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
That right is clearly not absolute; it is conditional. Indeed, John Paul Stevens, an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010, suggested the addition of five words to the amendment: “when serving in the militia”. Until a sufficient body of concerned US citizens and politicians come to accept this conditional interpretation, the senseless slaughter will continue.
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