The Whole Bill of Rights

I believe in the entire Bill of Rights, unlike those on the right who want to do away with the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments, and those on the left who want to do away with the Second and Tenth.

I once read a column (in Playboy, by the way) that said the author was a member of both the ACLU and the NRA. The reason was that he believed in both the First AND Second Amendments.

I'm the same way. Today, though I want to concentrate on only the Second Amendment.

As my son, along with both sets of grandparents, sat around taking turns holding my new grandson I mentioned that the other grandfather said he would teach little Hayden how to turn a wrench. I said that my son would teach him how to hit a ball and throw a ball, and that I would teach him how to shoot pictures and shoot a gun.

We all agreed that this last would be some long years into the future. When he is old enough. But I also told them that when I was a child my grandfather had a pistol hanging in his open closet door. I was curious about that pistol, and I wanted to hold it and examine it, maybe even shoot it. BUT all us grandchildren knew it was not to be touched. It was not a toy. It was a dangerous weapon. We would stick with our BB guns (OUTSIDE), and leave the big guns to the big people.

My son and I both want my grandson to understand that a gun is not a toy, and that if another kid comes along carrying one and saying, "Look what I found!" that Hayden will know not to go near it, and to tell an adult right away.

Too many on the right practically worship guns and use them to express their deathly fear of the "bad" people out there. Too many on the left have an unhealthy fear of guns themselves, and thus prevent their children from knowing what to do in the presence of one.

If children were taught what do do in the presence of guns, what guns are, and how to handle themselves with and around firearms, then there would be fewer casualties when idiots like the Pittsburgh killer use guns as a means of compensating for some real or perceived inadequacy.

As Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang, "Teach your children well."