Dear Thomas Jefferson,

 

 Thank you for your role in writing The Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.  I understand that you were an advocate for including it in the final Constitution.

 

 I think everyone agrees with me that those first ten amendments are an important part of the Constitution.  Those Ten Amendments guarantee certain civil rights and liberties for individuals.  It sets rules for due process of law.  It reserves powers for people that are not delegated to the Federal Government or to the states.

 

I’m still trying to get all of the dates straight in my mind.  The U.S Constitution was first signed in 1787.  Only thirty-nine of fifty-five delegates singed it that year.  Most of the people who refused to sign it did so because it did not include a Bill of Rights.  

 

The US Constitution was finally ratified by three fourths of the states in 1791.  I understand that the holdouts had waited until the Bill of Rights was included.  What were the political battles leading up to 1791?  Four years is a very long time to argue about something, but then again, everyone appreciates that you waited for compromises and consensus.

 

Today, many of the politicians in power seem to have lost the ability to compromise and seek consensus.

In December of 1787, you wrote a letter to James Madison where you listed some of your objections to the Constitution. You also included things in the letter that you thought still needed to be added to the document.  There is a famous sentence in that letter where you list freedoms, protections, restrictions, and force that you thought should be included in a bill of rights.  Everything that you mentioned, ended up in The Bill of Rights.

Freedoms…Protections…Restrictions…Force….are all important to us today.

I have been trying to figure out what you meant when you wrote the 2^nd Amendment. I’m guessing you meant it as a protection.  Am I correct?

 

Many people say that the 2^nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights guarantees that everyone in this country can keep and bear arms.  Actually, those people are correct.  If you only look at what it says at the end of that single sentence, that is exactly what it says:  “….. the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

 

It is the part before those words that I want to discuss with you.  That part says: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…..”

 

In that 1787 letter to Madison, you said that individuals needed to be protected from standing armies.  A few months later, you wrote a letter to Alexander David, and again you mentioned protection against standing armies.  In December of 1788, you wrote a letter to George Washington, and you said that you were against making war with other countries.  You said that you had a strong desire for peace.  In January of 1889, you wrote a letter to Richard Price, and you said that an advantage to the new country was that it did not follow England’s model of the dangerous machine of a standing army.

I am so confused. 

 

You said many different things about arms, armies, war, and peace.  Did you mean that everyone in this country should be armed?  Were you for or against war and armies?  Did you advocate peace for all?  What was it?  What did you think about killing people?  When we get together, I am eager to have a conversation about the right to bear arms.

 

Which brings me to another thing I want to discuss with you.  What were the Founding Fathers thinking when they talked about arms, guns, and shooting people?

 

Back in the day when The Bill of Rights was written, the available arms were muskets, bayonets, and rifles.  Arms are much more complicated today.  There are weapons of war that continuously dispense bullets as long as you have a magazine attached.  Do you think that citizens should keep that kind of weapon in their house?  We call them automatic weapons.  There are also semi-automatic weapons.  Should those weapons be in a home?

 

In 1791, all free males were considered part of the militia.  Today, the National Guard is the official militia in the United States.  Many people in the National Guard hold civilian jobs in addition to being part of the National Guard unit in their state. Those units are armed with tanks, automatic weapons, and grenades.  It seems to me that militia today means something different from what it meant in the 1790s. Do you think that should be considered when we think about the 2^nd Amendment?

 

Let’s get together and discuss the 2^nd Amendment, especially the words arms and militia.

 

Sincerely,

Katy Dalgleish