Goodness, what is going on in this democracy? Last week the State Senate followed the lead of the Assembly and overwhelmingly passed the Junior Hunting and Trapping bill which would allow adult-mentored young outdoors people to hunt big game at age 14. And then the Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment is an “individual right” that allows all law-abiding and mentally sound citizens to own a firearm, should they so choose.

The landmark decision by the Supreme Court regarding the “lawful meaning” of the Second Amendment should be cause for everyone, gun owner or not, to feel proud to be an American (although criminals may not think so). There’s been so much written and spoken, both pro and con, since the ruling’s announcement, we might tend to forget that the first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are known as this democracy’s Bill of Rights. And they are intended to be the rights of the individual citizens, and that government is prohibited from riding roughshod over them.