Shoot the Skunk!

     In the article “Thomas Grant Helped By Mom Janet Grant in Shooting Girl Mistaken For Skunk” by Hilary Hanson, we find the Second Amendment hard at work.  A Pennsylvania mother and son duo find themselves outside late one night while hosting a Halloween party.  Janet Grant received word that there was a skunk lurking about her property and promptly instructed her 24-year-old son to shoot it.  Janet Grant and her son Thomas ventured toward a hillside and, while Janet aimed the flashlight into the hilly woods, Thomas fired at what they both thought was the skunk in question.  Promptly after, they heard a girl scream from that direction.  They discovered an 8-year-old girl, a cousin of the family’s, shot in the “shoulder, arm, back, and neck.”  The young girl was wearing a black Halloween costume that had a white tassel.   After I read this horrifying story of our country’s Second Amendment applied to a real-life current American situation, I instinctually thought why are people like this allowed to own guns??  After some thought, however, I realize that, as much as it makes me cringe, these folks have just as much of a right as I do to carry a gun.  This article caused me to consider this idea of “Natural Rights” as it applies to American freedoms and liberties.  As much as I would wish to employ an IQ test in order for a person to own firearms, the idea that one’s IQ should be in relation to one’s natural right to protect him or herself leaves more unsettling loopholes that could be heavily manipulated by power-hungry, militant-minded individuals or groups.  The original intent of the Second Amendment was to provide citizens with a means to protect themselves against corrupt government forces.  I don’t think that the Second Amendment mentions anything about skunks. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/thomas-grant-skunk-shooting_n_2004860.html