As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, 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.

I do not believe that James Holmes, the Colorado shooter, constitutes, or is a member of, "a well regulated militia."

Back in Thomas Jefferson's day, there were single-shot pistols and muskets. You fired one shot, then you had to duck behind a tree and reload. It would take a fairly fast reloader about a full minute to ram the powder, ball, and wadding into the barrel and recharge the pan before he could fire again. Either that, or he could shove the hilt of a bayonet into the muzzle and use it for a spear.

These days, you can get a 30-round drum magazine for a Glock handgun, and empty the magazine with one pull of the trigger. The shooter in Aurora, Colorado had a shotgun, a rifle, and two .40 cal. Glocks.

I don't think the possibility of something like this even occurred to the Founding Fathers.

The NRA has one helluva lot to answer for!

Don Firth