The case was made in the last essay, that the only relevance to a RIGHT, to keep and bear arms, is an existent need to supplement the capability of law enforcement agencies to protect the populace against crime. As crime is reduced, as the availability of guns to criminals is precluded, and as our law enforcement agencies become more effective, this relevance will be further relegated to the history books.

At the time our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights Amendments thereto, were formulated and ratified, there were ample reasons for the maintenance of firearms in most every household. Hostile Indians were a threat on our frontiers. British, French, and Spanish colonists and traders resisted our expansion, if not our very existence, by their own aggressive actions as well as through fomenting and abetting trouble with the Indians. The populace, with the arms that they kept and bore, constituted the Militia, the principal armed force to be called upon for protection against internal or external threats. However the main reason households had guns was to bring home the victuals. Hunting was a major source of food supply.

Now, to the degree that we can eliminate the need to supplement the protection of our law enforcement agencies, the possession of guns by the populace is a privilege not a right. The keeping and bearing of arms would be for recreation, including recreational hunting, purposes only. Whether a privilege only, or a residual right due to the continuing threat of crime, the possession and use of firearms must be regulated and controlled, if the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" are to prevail.

Crime will be markedly reduced, from the President down to the lowliest citizen, as the RESPONSIBILITIES throughout these papers are invoked and bear fruit. Our law enforcement agencies will become more effective, as the firepower of criminals is reduced or eliminated. The following measures will accomplish the latter, and reduce or eliminate the accidents and crimes, which result from the unregulated possession of guns by the public:

1. Congress pass joint resolution requiring the President to invoke emergency powers to effect a moratorium (of, say, 3 to 6 months) on the manufacture, importation, exportation, sale or exchange of firearms. This period to allow time for the preparation, passage, and implementation of a law to effect the following steps. Allowance may be made to accommodate emergency sales or exchanges through temporary licensing.

2. With the intent of holding the possession of firearms and their deadliness to a minimum, the Congress (with the help of the executive branch) establish which type guns are necessary or appropriate to what people and entities under what circumstances for: recreation and hunting; or supplementation of law enforcement agencies' ability to protect the public from crime, as of 1993. It be understood that this prescription will be reexamined periodically toward further reducing the availability of arms as the assurance of domestic tranquillity is improved.

3. The holders of all guns not meeting the criteria of 2. above be required to turn them in during a specified time period, at locations and under conditions to be specified by the executive branch. Congress determine what (if any) "just compensation" is required to satisfy Constitution Amendment Article V. Congress specify the disposition or means of destruction. Sufficient fines and imprisonment be legislated to assure compliance.

4. The holders of all guns that meet the requirements of 2. above be required to register their guns and become licensed to bear and use the guns. The holder of the registration be required to control the bearing, storage, handling, and use of the gun; restricting these to licensed persons.

5. All persons that meet 4. above at the implementation of the law be required to meet the requirements of 6. below, after licensing, in a phased program to be established by the executive branch.

6. No guns be delivered upon sale or exchange until registration and licensing evidence is presented. No person (including children) be licensed until they have passed a prescribed and certified course in gun use, storage, handling, and safety.

7. If deaths, accidents, or crimes result from failure to safely control the accessibility of guns, appropriate fines or imprisonment be imposed. The bereaved and responsible family member or neighbor be not excepted, not withstanding their grief.

8. All costs for implementation and maintenance of this law be borne by gun registerers and licensees. The one exception be 3. above, to be treated directly as an anti-crime measure to be paid by taxpayers.

12.All media be precluded from including material that glorifies the possession and firing of guns. All previously produced films (etc.) that may encourage the misuse of guns be purged or removed from circulation and use.

Automobiles and trucks are vitally necessary to be kept and to be borne (driven) by the people, yet no one stubbornly claims that this right (necessity) shall not be infringed. Indeed for about seven decades federal, state and local governments have imposed all kinds of design, registration, licensing, driver training and testing, operation, etc., requirements to protect the general welfare. so be it with guns also!

Notwithstanding our extreme differences, the United States and its allies were able to effect treaties, with the former Soviet Union and its allies, to limit and control the keeping and bearing of nuclear and conventional arms. Yet our government cannot, or will not, get past the money and power of the National Rifle Association, to sensibly limit and control the existence of murderous weapons in the USA.

It is understandable from where the NRA is coming. Like the slave traders and owners, the gun industry and owners resist the loss and diminishment of business and property values. Both have claimed protection under the Constitution, despite the harm done to life and happiness of We the People. Both have had political clout. For both groups, the Courts have failed to take a just and timely stand so that we might have good government. Until and unless the NRA wholeheartedly supports life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, through effective gun control, it must be viewed as a subversive organization.