What about the survivors?

With all this talk about our beloved Second Amendment, I want to ask a question. It is probably an ignorant one, but I do have a solid reason for asking it. After all the massacres of innocent Americans lately, I want to ask about those Americans who do not love guns or do not feel the desire or need to own military-style weapons for any of the usual reasons given by the NRA on why it is necessary to own them.

As far as I know there is no constitutional amendment on our behalf like there is for the NRA. So, without an amendment, does this mean that we can be slaughtered at will by America’s vast gun culture whenever it gets a hair across its brow about some perceived offense or slight? Do those of us who choose not to carry semi-automatics have to constantly live in fear that we may be shot down at will if we are not armed for armageddon whenever we visit a public place like a school, a theater or responding to a fire? As a survivor of a drive-by shooting, I want to know the answers to these questions. As someone who also has lost a friend in a hail of AK-47 fire at her work as a town clerk (New Hampshire, 1992) from a citizen who was a responsible gun owner until he “lost it” over a denied permit, I want to know.

Do we need a special constitutional amendment to secure our rights not to be mowed down en mass? Do we survivors have to hear the sounds of those shots fired at us in our sleep so that the Second Amendment can go unimpeded?

Does anyone in this country give a damn about the survivors?

Walter Carpenter

Montpelier