Saturday Night Special

Let's get this straight: Guns don't kill people. Whacked-out nut-jobs with semi-automatic handguns and extended ammo clips kill people. These are not hunters. They are not hobbyists. Or collectors. Or enthusiasts. They are killers. Lynyrd Skynrd had it right: "Handguns are made for killin', they ain't good for nothin' else." Like assistant principals at Omaha, Nebraska high schools. Or nine-year old girls who happened to be in the line of fire. And five others who had the distinct disadvantage to be standing where bullets were being sprayed.
Of course, not everyone who carries a gun is a lunatic. It just happens that when lunatics avail themselves of firearms, it usually turns out bad. It is also true that these events don't always end in death. Sometimes the targets, accidental or intentional, are only wounded. Emotionally scarred and crippled in ways that only innocent bystanders can be. Or maybe they are simply taken hostage. At gunpoint. Nobody dies. They just spend the rest of their lives flinching every time they drive past a Baja Fresh tacqueria.
I know the right to bear arms is in our Constitution. So is a "well regulated militia." This is a document that was written hundreds of years ago, when muzzle-loaded rifles were the arms that were in question. It takes about fifteen seconds to fire and re-load one of those babies. That means, if you were quick, you might get off three or four shots in a minute. It also meant that if you were set upon by bands of angry natives with more conventional weapons or foreigners with bayonets, you might be in trouble. That's why American ingenuity gave us the rapid-fire repeating rifle. That was helpful when one was beset by herds of angry buffalo or pesky natives with more conventional weapons. That was a hundred and fifty years ago.
Since then, we have only made better and faster ways to get bullets into each other or pesky natives with more conventional weapons. Of course, we don't give guns to people who shouldn't have them. There are background checks for things like that. That keeps nut-jobs from getting their hands on weapons that extinguish life: their own and others. Of course, these background checks aren't necessary if the weapon being sold is classified a "relic or curio." In those cases the you can skip the background check. If you got hold of a musket from the 1800s you might have to limit your intended targets to those you could line up and shoot before they fell on you.
Two hundred and twenty-two years after the Constitution was enacted, there have been plenty of changes. No more prohibition. No more slavery. Women can vote. But everybody still gets to own guns. Even whacked-out nut-jobs. That's what makes America great.
Right.