COLUMN: Military and police policy obsoleted right to bear arms

(U-WIRE) CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Charlton Heston was elected this year to a third term as president of the National Rifle Association.

A third term -- the NRA's constitution only allows for two terms. The group voted to change that so that Moses could keep walking on water.

Mixed religious metaphors aside, I would like to make clear that the NRA's constitution is in no way as sacred to me as that of our nation. But, Charlie's third term does serve to illustrate a point: constitutions can change.

Our forefathers saw to it that this was the case. That's why we have the Second Amendment -- that's what an amendment is -- a change.

It is when constitutions can not change that a people is truly in danger of oppression. Change is the reason why our Constitution has lasted where others have failed. It is also why gun control does not panic me.

If our forefathers could have foreseen drive-bys and school shootings, other provisions would have been made.

They didn't.

But the provision that was made was made with the mind that a people might be able to rise up as a well-regulated militia to stop tyrannical rulers. The Second Amendment was designed to protect the right of potential militia members to store their weapons. It was designed to protect a people's right to protect its freedom.

But we no longer define freedom as an absence of domestic tyranny. Our military does not defend us from our tyrannical rulers, but rather protects our nation's interests -- mostly overseas.

And the technologies developed to help enforce that policy -- assault weapons and attack helicopters and nuclear weapons -- have rendered the Second Amendment obsolete.

Even an extremely well-armed militia -- lets say the Branch Davidians -- cannot defend itself from tyranny.

I will not bother to describe the scene in Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993 -- you've seen the tape. There was a day when a man could defend his family and his property with a gun. That day has gone.

The Second Amendment is obsolete.

That is not to say that public ownership of firearms should be banned, but that a blanket Constitutional right to own almost any kind of weapon in any quantity no longer protects a people from the government. It only protects a society that watches each month as another few people are killed by firearms.

If the government wants you, it can come and get you. You can be very well-armed, but you will never be that well-armed.

That's not the fault of those who favor gun control, but rather those who allowed our nation's military to get so powerful and our nation's federal police forces to go with them.

Maybe, as we change the Second Amendment, we might want to consider changing that as well.

(C) 2000 OSU Daily Barometer via U-WIRE