I’m responding to Jim Chiddix’s letter, “Hot heads with guns make poor decisions, people die” (Jan. 21).
The words of the Second Amendment — “a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state …” — does not mean a collective right but an individual one. This decision has been reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, see District of Columbia v. Heller (case number 07-290), and McDonald v. City of Chicago (case number 08-1521).
I would argue the point that gun owners, who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon, must go through training about how to properly handle a weapon and about how to discharge said weapon.
The idea that Americans are roaming the countyside shooting people because they were spooked is laughable. As far as I know, the mass shootings happening as of late are being planned meticulously over a period of time by mentally unstable people, not by law-abiding, properly trained gun owners, of which they are in the millions.
Kenneth McCahan
Starks
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