Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. Not only are we dealing with the ongoing rebuilding from Sandy, but folks up in CT are dealing with the unimaginable horror of the Sandy Hook massacre. In between all that news, I missed an earlier tweet by Ann Coulter in which she mangles constitutional law and appears to claim that the 2d Amendment gives people the same rights as the military to bear arms.

2d amt gives us a rt to bear the same hand-held firearms the military does. Nonsensical to ask: Should ppl have rt to same guns as military?

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) December 16, 2012

That couldn’t be more horribly incorrect and asinine.

The 2d Amendment clearly states that the government has the right to regulate firearms. In fact, the first three words of the 2d call for “a well regulated” militia. Accepting that militia is read as an individual right to bear arms, you’d still be ignoring the fact that the federal government has an overriding power to regulate that right. It can’t prohibit all firearms, but in no way, shape, or form does it give an individual the same right or access to firearms as in the military.

The military’s constitutional authority comes from Art 1, Clause 8, where Congress must authorize funding of the military. It doesn’t restrict the military’s use of weaponry. That compares with the 2d that clearly intimates a regulated right to bear arms.

It’s past time we start addressing that plain English meaning of the 2d Amendment. That doesn’t mean banning firearms, but it means that the ease with which to obtain certain kinds of firearms must be eliminated.

Is there any reason to obtain semi-auto or semi-auto that can be easily converted to full auto weapons? There’s no purpose to have those weapons except as a means to kill people. You’re not going to hunt with those - even if you’re doing it for sport, then you’d completely trash the critter you’re hunting.

Same issue with extended ammo holders (clips/magazines).

Mandatory training and periodic license renewal. Fees from renewals and licensing to go to gun-buyback programs and victim compensation funds.

That wont stop all firearms homicides or even another massacre from occurring, but combined with improved mental health services, it could help reduce the chances of another one.