We constantly limit or resist efforts at gun control because we think the Second Amendment confers gun ownership as a constitutional right. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3-ranked Senate Republican, has stated, “We don’t want to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens,” in explaining why members of his party have no interest in imposing new regulations on gun purchases. He voted against gun legislation in the Senate, stating that “these solutions must also always protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.”

I think it’s foolhardy to say that gun restrictions are unconstitutional. The Second Amendment has virtually no applicability to our current conception of gun ownership. In reference to American history, our Founding Fathers viewed gun ownership in the context of being part of a militia. Noah Shusterman, historian of the 18th century, in referring to the debates about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, notes that “the militia’s importance leaps off the page.” Alexander Hamilton, writing in the Federalist Papers, called a well-regulated militia “the most natural defense of a free country.”

As for the current debate on gun control, none of the issues animating that debate — from “stand your ground” laws to assault weapons bans — entered into the Founders’ thinking. Before the landmark 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller, courts had ruled that the right of individual citizens to bear arms existed only within the context of participation in the militia. In Heller, the Supreme Court overturned that precedent. Of the phrase “keep and bear arms,” Antonin Scalia wrote that the court found “no evidence that it bore a military meaning,” an extraordinary misinterpretation of history.

Our gun culture allows access to guns of all sorts and, with the Second Amendment, legitimizes gun ownership as a right. I think we are captive of a social/political order that is currently grounded in fear and mistrust. Our leaders attribute their lack of action to individual constitutional rights despite the mass murders of fellow citizens. This is a frightful and tragic interpretation of the Second Amendment and morally reprehensible.

Bob Scobie

West Lebanon

Grafton County District 18 Rep. John Sellers’ strident letter to the Forum (“Pull your kids from school to save the republic,” June 25) should give his constituents and the rest of New Hampshire pause. The quotes he chose and the way he designated them as partisan is absurd. It is right out of “Moms for Liberty” playbook just as critical race theory and gendered bathrooms dropped out of the sky like burning missiles, searing their message into people’s consciences.

Instead of taking him at his word, it is my hope that your readers would want to understand what drove the authors to think critically about life, labor and the human condition. All of them, good and evil, are worthy of academic study. If Rep. Sellers has his way, they certainly will not be studied in his schools to the detriment of the students.

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Really Bad Chess

Public school should be a place where kids from all backgrounds, cultures and religions can be on equal footing. It should be a place to understand differences and learn respect and tolerance. We have reached a new wave of attacks on this institution pushed from extremist groups. At the heart of their attacks is to keep us divided using these (ridiculous) scare tactics. In the end, Rep. Sellers would like to legislate hate. Since he has not been able to bring that to fruition — yet — he is resorting to this nonsense. I hope Forum readers don’t buy it and vote him and his ilk out of office.

Sharon Racusin

Hanover

A math problem: If X applies for a loan, accepts said loan, unwisely invests (i.e., squanders) said loan, and then expects someone other than X be dunned for repayment of said loan, what are the odds that X is a Republican?

Anthony Stimson

Lebanon