Fix the Second Amendment?

Joel Rector, Las Vegas

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 | 2 a.m.

Unfortunately, we find our collective selves reliving the nightmare once again. Another mass murder in the workplace by a deranged person with firearms. Another 12 innocent victims dead and more wounded.

We will undoubtedly hear from the pro-gun lobby that our Constitutional right to bear arms is under attack and must be protected, regardless of cost. Their argument rests on the proposition that the Second Amendment is based on the need to protect ourselves against a tyrannical government.

I wonder where these protectors of the right to bear arms were from 1942-1946, when thousands of Japanese Americans were rounded up — their homes, businesses and property confiscated — and forcibly sent to live in internment camps? Doesn’t that qualify as tyranny?

Where were these champions of freedom from 1865 to the 1960s when Jim Crow laws ruled much of the nation and millions of people were denied basic rights?

Didn’t any of those state government actions and a blind eye turned by the federal government constitute tyranny?

If the purpose of our Second Amendment is to protect the citizenry against tyranny, as argued by many proponents of gun rights, it has apparently fallen far short of its goals.

Let’s drop the pretense and have an honest discussion about firearms accessibility and ownership. We must stop this madness.