ALICIA COLON: “A Case For Guns”:

…The Second Amendment reads: "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." What many control advocates forget is that comma after the word state. They would like us to think that it refers only to a militia. The comma makes it very clear that it is the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

It certainly was the right of Margaret Johnson to bear arms in September, when a mugger tried to rob the wheelchair-bound Harlem resident. She drew the pistol she was carrying and shot him in his elbow. Ms. Johnson, who has a gun carry permit, was on her way to a shooting range when she was attacked. Statistics from the National Safety Council show that firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.

How often do we have to read about an estranged wife or girlfriend getting gunned down by her ex? Enacting more gun laws hasn't protected women in this city. Maybe instead of going after the gun manufacturers, our mayor should be trying to enact legislation to toughen stalker laws and to increase the penalties for those who violate orders of protection. How about offering self-defense classes or gun permits and firearms training to battered women before they become death statistics?

Excellent piece. Read it all.