TO THE EDITOR:
In his January 3 editorial Bishop Tobin tries to draw an analogy between the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution.
The Bishop is quite right that freedom of speech is not absolute. The Constitution’s writers believed that free political speech should be protected. The courts have morphed this into “freedom of expression” which protects pornography, nude entertainment, filthy and violent lyrics in hip-hop music, first-person shooter video games which inure young men to killing and artistic license to display a crucifix in a jar of urine.
The Second Amendment is second because the founders feared a standing army and believed an armed citizenry (the “militia,” i.e. all able-bodied males between 16 and 59 years of age) was a counterbalance to tyranny by the government. The Rhode Island Constitution says simply that the people’s right to bear arms shall not be infringed. There is no militia clause.
While the news media is replete with accounts of “gun violence” it is silent about incidents in which an armed person was able to thwart a crime or defend themselves or others from violence. This happens more often than most people think.
Since the bishop’s anti-gun bias echoes the editorial stance of the state’s daily newspaper, it ran his comments verbatim. So far the ProJo hasn’t seen fit to print his excellency’s anti-gay marriage editorial. I wonder why?
Richard J. August
North Kingstown
