Letter: Origins of the Second Amendment
To the Editor:
In his Jan. 17 letter, Marc C. Roy of Fairlee stated, “The Second Amendment was put into the Bill of Rights to defend our Constitution.” It was not. It was put into the Bill of Rights to defend the slave patrol militia in the Southern states. Patrick Henry and George Mason were concerned that since Article 1, Section 8 of the proposed Constitution gave Congress the power to control the militia, the Southern states would not have the power to put down slave insurrections without the permission of Congress and they knew that a majority in the North were against slavery. See: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery.
Roy’s letter also refers to the Georgia woman who successfully defended herself and her children against an intruder. She did not use an assault weapon to do it. Having the right to defend ourselves does not require assault weapons.
Ruth L. Stephenson
Lebanon
