More than 12,000 Americans have been killed by guns this year alone.

As a long-ago foreigner I have never understood how so many people interpret the Constitution so strangely. Arming citizens (it is clear to me anyway) was in the context of membership of citizen militias, defending against foreign interference. Yes, the wording is careless, and the founders should have clarified that section, but they were smart people and I doubt they truly advocated that every Tom, Dick and Harry, every teenager and mentally deranged person should freely carry around guns, taking out their hate and frustration on the innocent, and doing more harm to fellow citizens than to any invader.

As the survivor of a gunshot from three yards away from a careless soldier (which almost literally parted my hair; guns give me nightmares ) I can only think that all this gun crime arises from a lack of imagination in the politicians who have refused to address it. Nowhere in the world should private gun ownership, especially automatic gun ownership be a right. Epicurus advocated moderation – lock up the guns and use them on firing ranges or for hunting, if you insist.