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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993                   TAG: 9302110328
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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LEAVE NATIONAL SECURITY TO MILITARY

EDWARD A. Lynch (Jan. 31 letter, "Can't liberals read Constitution?") should be informed that liberals, moderates and conservatives who can read, and are not blinded by ulterior motives, can "understand the lucid English phrase" contained in the single, declarative sentence that constitutes the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

In my copy of the Constitution, the entire contents of the Second Amendment reads: "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." When considered in the historical context of the years preceding its ratification in 1791, the original intent of this amendment must be obvious to any reasoning person, with the possible exceptions of some graduates of prestigious law schools or some lifetime members of the National Rifle Association.

I am confident that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on organized federal and state military forces in 1992 will be adequate to ensure "the security of a free state" without assistance from arms-bearing individuals who are not, by the wildest stretch of the imagination, likely to operate as "A well regulated Militia." Get in touch with reality, man!

If unlimited and unrestricted access to firearms by the general public is important and desirable, then I suggest that funds and effort be directed toward ratification of an amendment that clearly defines that "right" in the context of current conditions. But please, don't do further injury to our Constitution by attempting to prostitute the Second Amendment to this purpose. EUGENE M. BAIRD MARTINSVILLE

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