Miscellaneous: Yet Another Deadly Mass Shooting

At the end of last month, in Santa Barbara, California, a young man, armed to the teeth (with apparently legally acquired weapons) randomly shot and killed six people and wounded another 13. It's sickening that we have to talk about such an incident yet again. In my view, the problem is at least partly that we've acquiesced in accepting false interpretations of the 2nd Amendment. The idea that the 2nd Amendment gives every individual the right to possess and carry deadly weapons is wrong and historically novel. James Madison's original wording of the Amendment makes it absolutely clear what was intended. A well-regulated militia is unambiguously equated with organized military service.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."
– Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 1st Congress, 1st Session: pp. 451. 

The 2nd Amendment, although confusingly worded in its final form, does not say what gun advocates want us to believe it says. It says nothing about the gun rights of individuals. It’s time to take back the 2nd Amendment.

What a country this is: Legal to carry a loaded AK-47 down the street, illegal to carry a glass of wine down the street. 

On the Road: Mission Santa Barbara

Stopped briefly at Mission Santa Barbara on the way home. The photos show the old fountain in front of the mission and the mountain lion-headed spout on the lavanderia, or laundry, also in front of the mission. The mission proper is in the background of both shots. Around the lavanderia were planted a number of varieties of old grapes of the sorts the mission indians used to make sacramental wines--the start of Santa Barbara's wine industry.