No to the Second Amendment

Adriana Ramirez’s “Make gun owners get insurance” (Sept. 2) is laudable. But while it would help to compensate victims and might reduce overall gun violence in the U.S. by making gun ownership more costly, compulsory insurance is unlikely to substantially reduce mass shootings.

The U.S. is one of only three nations with a constitutional right to bear arms, and the laws of the other two (Mexico and Guatemala) are far more restrictive, as contrasted with our disturbing history of judge-made expansion.

The Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 because of anti-federalist concerns about the uncertain reach of a nascent federal government. Originalism and common sense tell us that it should now be considered an anachronism and no longer relevant.

Sad to say, the propagation of mass shootings in the U.S. will not cease until the Second Amendment is repealed altogether, thus enabling effective regulation of guns and gun possession not unlike what we require of motor vehicles and their operators. That is the task that should be before us all.

Bruce Wilder
New Orleans, La.