Letter: Second Amendment is outdated in modern times
For every single tragedy that happens, there is a sea of questions like, why? This is the question I ask myself with every violent act involving something many Americans love so much to death: a firearm.
One particular question I made to myself is, why do we really, and in these modern times, need something called a Second Amendment? For what? With a nation boasting the best civil and law enforcement corps among developed countries, why do we still have and rely on a set of words, aged 200 years, that we need to honor without even debating it?
The Second Amendment, for these modern times, should cease to exist and in its place, allow for the needed sound regulation of use and purchase of firearms. Make no mistake, firearms are weapons of mass destruction that need control, just like most things we do not take for granted in our country.
That centuries-old phrase, denoting unconditional freedom to hurt others, needs to rest for good — not a sickening, often dangerous, adherence to it.
Erick Dietrich, Walla Walla
This story was originally published August 14, 2016 at 4:44 AM with the headline "Letter: Second Amendment is outdated in modern times."