Robert Brown: When none is better

Regarding your Oct. 11 Sunday Forum: When I hear some of the arguments that gun rights maximalists make to support their peculiar interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, I am reminded of how John Wesley countered what he considered to be a horrendous misinterpretation of a portion of Scripture. “But this I know,” wrote Wesley, “better it were to say it had no sense, than to say it had such a sense as this.”

The gun rights maximalists would have us believe that the Second Amendment guarantees to nearly every adult citizen the right to build an arsenal and the right to carry firearms in nearly every place. This interpretation is preposterous, for there is simply no way to maintain a peaceful, secure republic when the power of the state to enact reasonable regulations is denied.

It would be better to say that the Second Amendment has no meaning at all than to accept the gross misinterpretation that the gun rights maximalists are preaching as gospel.

This story was originally published October 17, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Robert Brown: When none is better."