IN THE wake of the appalling slaughter of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, the Governor of Texas, Gregg Abbott and leaders of the NRA have again voiced their opposition to gun control – on the grounds that the Second Amendment to the American Constitution grants individual citizens the right to bear arms. It does not.

The Second Amendment states ‘a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’.

But Governor Abbott and his mindless pals in the NRA choose to ignore the first words of that amendment which grant the right to bear arms as part of ‘a well regulated militia’.

None of those responsible for the hundreds of mass shooting that have taken place in the USA in recent years were members of a well-regulated militia.

The men who ratified the Second Amendment in 1791 must be turning in their graves at the way in which Gun Lobbyists have twisted their words to protect the ‘freedom’ of every Tom, Dick and Harry (including the mentally unstable) to pop into their nearest gun store and buy military-grade weaponry – with little or no check on the background and intentions of the purchaser.

Governor Abbott’s expression of sympathy for the families and friends of the victims of the mass-murder at Uvalde are little more than crocodile tears.

Shame on him, the NRA and all those gung-ho red-neck gun lovers who oppose attempts to regulate the sale of weaponry at every turn.

The blood of those children who died at Uvalde is on their hands.

ROBERT READMAN

Norwich Avenue West, Bournemouth