To the editor:

As an “originalist” I understand that what James Madison meant by “arms” when he drafted the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was single-shot muzzle loaders and swords. As in many other areas of 21st century life, the slow process of legislation and judicial interpretation is lagging woefully behind the pace of technological creativity. The AR-15 is commonly sold with a 30-shot magazine. I see no technical reason why this could not soon become a 100-shot magazine. Time to admit three things:

1) We are so late waking up to these issues that there will be many more mass murders because there are so many military-grade weapons already in the hands of who-knows-who.

2) That most mass murderers are first offenders, i.e., that they are, until the “tragic” day, the very law-abiding citizens the NRA hopes, naively, to represent.

3) That teachers are taking bullets for our kids while our elected government is doing — and sacrificing — nothing. Who in this picture is underpaid and who is overpaid? If you want a weapon to defend your home, fine. But, unless you are a lousy shot, I doubt you need a high-capacity magazine to do it, and, by the way, your kids are not at home, they’re at school.