Opinion: Second amendment dramatically affirmed

We had yet another incident earlier today, in Texas, in which a lone gunman with a firearm killed innocent people.

It seems few weeks go by without a solitary gunman killing people in some public place in America. Each of these shocking events causes every thinking individual to wonder what should be done or could have been done.

The shrill anti-gun lobby always responds with demands that would seriously abridge the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Second Amendment absolutists, many represented by the National Rifle Association (NRA), predictably oppose any measures that would take away guns, except from their “cold dead hands.”

Is there a sensible middle ground that would be a sound basis for public policy in the 21st century?

We often think of early American history as a time when people carried guns and used them without any hint of gun control. That ignores the fact that gun control was rather strictly enforced some places on the frontier.

On October 26, 1881, Tombstone, Arizona, had laws on its books that required visitors to disarm, leaving their guns either at a hotel or with law enforcement authorities, when they entered Tombstone. Yet, that same day, Tombstone Marshall Virgil Earp deputized his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, and their friend, John Henry “Doc” Holiday, to deal with a violation of the town’s gun regulations. Billy Clanton and brothers Tom and Frank McLaury were carrying guns illegally. The three lost their lives when they went up against the Earp brothers and Holiday at the O.K. Corral.

Then, as now, having gun control laws on the books did not assure that illegal guns would not be used for senseless killings.

One thing is certain, and was proven again today in Tarrant County, Texas: non-criminals – responsible, law abiding people – must always have the right to possess firearms and other weapons.

Two armed citizens killed the mad gunman at the church. Had they not been armed, he would have been free to kill even more innocent worshipers.