Advertisement
Readers Respond

The 2nd Amendment makes it difficult for US to follow other countries on guns | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
•
Demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a gun rights case that centers on New York's restrictive gun permit law and whether limits the state has placed on carrying a gun in public violate the Second Amendment. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a gun rights case that centers on New York's restrictive gun permit law and whether limits the state has placed on carrying a gun in public violate the Second Amendment. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

I was gratified to see that Senators have tentatively struck a bipartisan deal offering modest gun curbs along with efforts to fund school safety and mental health programs. What is missing is a ban of assault-style semi-automatic firearms such as AR-15 rifles that are commonly used in mass shootings.

In their commentary (“US can learn a lot from how other countries regulate guns,” June 13), Keith Tidman and Martin Cohen detail striking contrasts between the low number of gun homicides in countries with significant gun reform policies and the epidemic of gun deaths in the U.S., a country with few gun restrictions. As pointed out by Tidman and Cohen, enhanced gun restrictions in Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Australia and Japan were followed by a sharp drop in gun deaths.

Advertisement

However, translating successful experiences with gun restrictions in other countries to the U.S. faces an almost insurmountable hurdle, namely the Second Amendment of our Constitution. Countries such as Australia, Great Britain and Japan do not have a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms. The U.S. is the only country in which there is a right to keep and bear arms with no constitutional restriction.

It is unfortunate that without significant change to the Second Amendment, we are unlikely to see meaningful gun reform in the U.S.

Advertisement

— Beryl Rosenstein, Pikesville

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.

Advertisement