To the editors:
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The Second Amendment, as interpreted by the NRA, promotes the responsible ownership and use of firearms. The NRA strongly supports proper training in the safe handling of these very powerful tools. Gun ownership by, and proper training of, women is encouraged. Firearms are “the great equalizer” enabling those who are smaller or weaker to protect themselves against those who are larger or stronger. “A handgun in the home is a contingency, based on the knowledge that if there ever comes a time when it is needed, no substitute will do. Certainly no violent intent is implied any more than the purchaser of life insurance intends to die soon” (Ten Myths About Gun Control, NRA Institute for Legislative Action). In Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms, James Wright and Peter Rossi, in a U.S. Justice Department funded study, found that the threat of an armed citizen (women included) was probably the most effective deterrent to crime in the nation. A woman with a gun is not a victim.
James Madison (Federalist Paper No. 46) promised the American people that they would continue to possess “the advantage of being armed,” and thereby would be able to form the militia when needed as a “barrier against the enterprises of despotic ambition.” Historically the term “militia” refers to the people (including women) at large, armed and ready to defend themselves, their homes, and their freedom. They would use arms supplied, not by the government, but by themselves. Federal law defines the militia in Title 10, Section 311(a) of the U.S. Code. Closer to home, the Illinois Constitution defines the the militia in Article XII, Section 1 as: “The State Militia consists of all able-bodied persons.” Women are not excluded by the Second Amendment, they are embraced by it. Ms. Becker is clearly wrong in her statement “it fails to include women in one of the defining roles of citizenship-military service.” The Second Amendment is NOT about military service. It is antimilitary. If she needs an invitation to exercise her rights as a citizen then I extend this invitation: Ms. Becker, I invite you to exercise your constitutional right to participate in the militia of the State of Illinois.
