Leave it to a liberal to think “one-shot muzzleloaders” was the only thing James Madison had in mind when he helped draft the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, The Bill of Rights.

Professor Omdahl needs to study history better. His lofty imaginings of how and why our government was formed just don’t fit the facts of history. All the great men who wrote the Constitution and then added The Bill of Rights were working to form a new country with its own unique government. They knew history well enough to understand that even this government over time could fail to uphold human rights. Yes, they are “God-given rights” which he called in his snarky fashion.

Mr. Omdahl very pompously suggests that James Madison thinks “he created the Second Amendment while God just looked on.” I’m quoting the professor.

If he had really studied history he would have seen that Madison was not “pushed to the wall.” Again citing Mr. Omdahl, Madison didn’t “buckle” either. Neither did he think only of guns. James Madison with the help of the other founders drafted the Second Amendment because they all knew it would strengthen human rights for both the states and federal government. That is really what led to the Constitution getting ratified!

Conservatives are not blaming “God for guns,” as Mr. Omdahl tries to tell us. Those great men who founded this government were intelligent enough to know how history shows that many governments even from Biblical times failed to protect the individual rights of their citizens.

If Professor Omdahl will spend more time studying the Old Testament as well as the New Testament he will understand how many times governments took rights from the people.

I’m very likely just as old as Mr. Omdahl. Surely he remembers, just as I do, that during our school days years ago we never had to fear someone would as he states “bound into the room with his AR-15.” We never even feared someone with a pistol would come to our school!

Maybe he and all of us should try to understand why our society, our culture, has so degraded to where young children have to fear for their safety in school.

Then and only then we will stop fighting and begin to work together to make schools again safe for learning.

Beverly Medalen,

Willow City