Another school shooting played out Friday in Connecticut.  And as our nation reels from the shock and horror, we once again ask ourselves what could have prevented the deaths of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Proponents of interpreting the Second Amendment quite literally as no infringement on gun access whatsoever are already on high alert against the equally passionate advocates of gun control.  The debate rages once again, as does every time there is a loss of lives due to gun violence.

Our Constitution’s Second Amendment states: 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.

But what does that language mean for the American of 2012?  I don’t think the writers of the Constitution envisioned a world with deranged men killing American citizens in our public places and schools like shooting fish in a barrel.  We know the arms they referred to were muskets, which by the time you went through the rigamarole it took to fire one, you were fairly certain of who you were firing on and why you were at them.  They could not imagine the instant death that modern automatic weapons can inflict, nor predict the almost unending supply of weapons and ammunition readily available for purchase, in some cases, sight unseen, to almost anyone with the cash to spend.  Continue reading →