The gun nuts are out in force again.  The latest story comes to us courtesy of a man named Dale Welch, who decided to go into a Starbucks coffee shop in Virginia with a handgun strapped to his waist in order to exercise his right to bear arms.  There was a recent article in the New York Times about a grass roots effort among some gun rights advocates exercising their right to carry unconcealed weapons in states that have open-carry laws.  I am well aware of the second amendment.  Citizens of the United States of America have the right to keep and bear arms, that doesn’t mean that Americans should have the right to carry any type of weapon anywhere they want.  The Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings should serve as a reminder to everyone that limiting access to firearms is not always a bad thing.  The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech.  This doesn’t mean that we can’t enact laws prohibiting certain types of speech, the old screaming fire in a crowded movie theatre analogy.  The United States Bill of Rights guarantees the right to own a firearm.  This doesn’t mean that those of us non-crazy Americans can’t pressure Congress to protect our right to be safe from idiots carrying guns.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Second Amendment sucks.  I wonder if the founding fathers knew that they would cause so much controversy and violence with this text.  Just in the last 12 months, we have seen new laws enacted that allow guns to be carried on college campuses and in bars.  Does anyone else think that this is ridiculous?  In 2004, firearms were used to murder 11,344 people in the United States, compared with 184 in Canada and 73 in England. Why are murders from firearms so much lower in Canada and England?  I know, there are more people in the U.S. than in England and Canada, but the per capita gun related murders are significantly higher in America as well.  Could it be that restrictions on firearms are much stricter in these countries? There are somewhere between 193 million and 250 million guns in the United States. Since September 11th, 2001, nearly 120,000 Americans have been killed, most of these murders were committed with guns.  That is nearly 25 times the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  From 1999 through 2005, an average of over 100 children and teenagers took their own lives with guns.  How many of these young people used firearms that were readily accessible in their home?  Eight kids are shot to death every day in the United States.  The presence of a gun in the home triples the risk of homicide in the home. At what point do we say enough is enough?  How many Americans need to die before we consider restricting access to firearms?