Our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness come before someone’s right to own a gun. I understand that is not how everyone thinks. What everyone thinks has nothing to do with what I think. I think they are wrong. It’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it, just as you are entitled to yours. (As wrong as it may be.)

In my opinion, the 2nd amendment is specific in the right to bear arms in support of a “well regulated militia.” The ability of regulation is written into the amendment. The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the 2nd amendment to mean that every citizen has the right to own a gun. I agree – if those citizens belong to a militia. I know thousands of people. I do not know of one of them who belongs to a militia. (Of course, I don’t know everything about everyone, so I may be wrong.) If one doesn’t belong to a militia, in my opinion one shouldn’t have a gun. Simple.

Guns were designed with one purpose in mind – to kill. That design interferes with those inalienable rights I mentioned earlier.

Today is the anniversary of my father landing on the beach at Iwo Jima in 1942. He certainly carried a gun, and from one story I heard he apparently carried and used a flame thrower at one point. (That story was told to me by my Uncle Joe Duffy in 2001.) His job was to kill the enemy.

When he returned home, he didn’t speak of what happened or of his receiving the Purple Heart. He didn’t teach his four sons how to use a gun or tell us about the stories of what happened on Iwo Jima. I’m sure he was horrified by what he saw and wanted to shield us from those horrors. He had to live the rest of his life with those memories, and that was more than enough.

I recall looking at a photo album with him one evening while we were looking for something else, and happened upon it. It was of pictures of him in the Marine Corps, and it was something I had never seen before or since. He turned page after page without saying a word. When he finished, he said, “Most of those boys never came home.”

He came home, married the girl of his dreams, had a family, contributed to his community in many ways and passed away the day after Veterens Day in 2004. He was so very proud of his service to our country, but he was more proud of the life he led afterwards and his contributions to our society and the legacy that he has left behind.

In my opinion, that legacy is being threatened by guns. I am willing to fight that attack on his legacy and mine.

“Those boys,” to which my father had referred, volunteered to serve our country and supposedly knew the risks which they decided to take. The 17 kids who died at the hands of a psychotic gunman in Florida this week had no such option. They had their lives to live. They had their legacies to create. They had everything in front of them. Those lives, those legacies were taken from them by a deranged kid who apparently had no trouble getting his hands on a killing machine, and using it for the purpose for which it was designed – to kill.

Look, there is no one way to solve the gun problem, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that this is an incredibly complex issue. I am open to ideas – reasonable, well thought out ideas. I am willing to be the point person for a national effort, even though my experience in the area is zero. Good, reasonable, well thought out ideas don’t need to be presented to the American public by someone with experience, they need to be presented intelligently and calmly by someone who cares enough to do it. I’m in.

What the hell are we waiting for?