I used to live upstairs from a drunk. Every few nights he'd get noisy, I'd lock the deadbolt on my door, and pray to heaven he hadn't bought himself a gun. He'd hurt himself before he broke down my door. But he could shoot through it easily enough. Happily he never bought a gun. Even more happily, he moved.

My sister lives on a farm in North Carolina. I wish she'd buy a rifle. She's a lesbian, living with her partner. In a very rural area. Where feral dogs, rabid animals and rabid homophobes are a real danger.

To amend the Constitution, 1 somebody has to propose the amendment. 2. It has to pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives. 3. The President has to approve. 4. A majority of the states must ratify said amendment. It takes a bit of work. The 19th Amendment passed both houses in 1918, but it wasn't ratified until 1920.

The Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, which is a sacred document, akin to the Magna Charta or the Rights of Man, here in the U.S. When I was 9 there was a copy of it on the classroom wall in school. One day our teacher went through it, and explained what each right meant. She was an urban Jew, and probably never touched a gun in her life. But those ten amendments were important to her.

When I was 12, there was a copy of the Bill of Rights in the back of our history text. Once again, the teacher took us through it, and told us what each amendment meant. She also taught us that no right was aboslute. The First Amendment guarantees religious freedom. But even Utah doesn't recognize polygamous marriages. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. But, in those days, that didn't mean you could own a machine gun.

Deer hunting is pretty popular here in Western Pennsylvania. Many of my neighbors are Polish, Serbian, Slovak, or Czech. Their ancestors came from countries where hunting was a nobleman's priveledge. Here anyone who can afford the license and equipment can go out and try to bag a ten point buck. Count yourself lucky if you get through a winter without being served venison. When gun control laws are proposed, the NRA goes to hunters and tells them that the government will take their guns away. It works.