“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.”

I have to respectfully disagree with Bob Burns’ column in the April 5 Times regarding the Second Amendment. Our Forefathers took great care to explain their reasonings behind each aspect of the Constitution in their writings. I highly recommend reading the literature of the time for clarification.

Thomas Jefferson provides some such clarification in the same year the Constitution was written. In 1787 he states, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms,” in a letter to John Adams' son-in-law.

In the same year, Noah Webster states, “The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops” in “An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution.”

Our nation was founded by rebellion against tyranny. Our Founding Fathers absolutely had resistance to tyranny in the forefront of their minds when writing our Constitution, including the Second Amendment.

There are many more quotes like these, as well. But rather than cramming all the historical quotes I can into my 300 words, I suppose I’ll leave you to continue debating with this one quote by the younger William Pitt from 1789: “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”