Tuesday, March 10, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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Recent headlines tell about a mass shooting by a UPS worker who had amassed 20,000 rounds of ammunition, body armor, multiple high-powered military rifles and backpacks that were “staged” at an apartment’s front door.
In 2019, there were 434 mass shootings in America, injuring 1,643 people and killing 517. These were not cases of self-defense.
A collection of high-powered, semiautomatic military weapons is called an arsenal or armory. The Constitution allows a person who is a member of a “well-regulated militia” to “keep and bear arms.” Nowhere does it allow a person to build and keep a personal arsenal that can equip an entire militia.
When a soldier is deployed to a war zone, he or she is issued one rifle. The basic combat load is 210 rounds, usually carried in seven 30-round magazines. This is what they carry when patrolling hostile streets in war zones.
Personal arsenals destroy homeland security and turn neighborhoods and workplaces into battlefields. The laws must be written to explicitly state the illegality of this practice. The sales of ammunition and firearms must be reported by all gun dealers to prevent mass murders.
