Letter: Unfettered access to guns isn’t a constitutional right

I’m writing in response to the two stories published in the Chronicle on Jan. 12, 2023. Both were in reference to the new Illinois law banning the purchase, sale and manufacture of high powered semi-automatic weapons, .50 caliber rifles and ammunition and large-capacity magazines.

In the article that included interviews with local gun shop owners, Mr. Segarra, owner of a gun shop in West Chicago said, “The politicians could use other methods to reduce crime, like pursuing criminals.”

The Sandy Hook shooter didn’t have a criminal record. The Margery Stoneman Douglas shooter didn’t have a criminal record. The Las Vegas shooter didn’t have a criminal record. And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the 6-year-old in Virginia who shot his teacher probably doesn’t have a criminal record.  

What they did have is easy access to guns. In the article that included interviews with several Illinois sheriffs’ offices, we learned that many have no intention of enforcing parts of the law that require owners who already own these guns to register these weapons with the state.  

Apparently these law enforcement folks don’t think that enforcing the law is their responsibility. They claim it’s a violation of the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment says, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bears arms, shall not be infringed.”

Outside of a “well regulated militia” where in an amendment that was  written in the 1700s does it suggest that anyone has the right to unfettered access to lethal weapons?  

Susan Lovell

DeKalb