27 October—Heartfelt thanks to the many thoughtful readers who have expressed their sympathy at the passing of Token. Too bad he couldn’t make it to National Black Cat Day today. He’s now buried near his sister and all the other family cats of blessed memory who didn’t disappear, under a big old white spruce.

Wednesday evening’s dreadful Lewiston, Maine, bowling alley-bar massacre, which left 18 people dead and 13 wounded, has quite predictably energized all the usual knee-jerkers to double down in their undying crusade to eliminate gun ownership in the cause and with the excuse of eliminating gun violence.

While the unrelenting anti-gun crusaders haven’t been able to ban private gun ownership altogether, they have been pretty successful at wearing away the Second Amendment’s “people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” bit by insidious bit. And what effect has that had on actually reducing gun violence?

The anti-gun crusaders certainly don’t look forward to violence and mayhem caused by nuts and criminals bearing firearms, but they can’t wait to take full advantage of the emotional impact of the tragic events while the bullets are still flying. Or at least, as in this case, while the gunslingers are still on the loose.

If anyone wants to restrict or otherwise modify the parameters of the Second Amendment—or any amendment or article of the Constitution, it shouldn’t be attempted through piecemeal legislation. The proper way to go about it is through the amendment process, which is clearly spelled out in the Constitution.

It’s not easy to amend the Constitution, for good reason; but it has been done, for good reason, 26 times. When it was done for stupid reason—namely, the 18^th Amendment, Prohibition, the only instance of a right actually being infringed—it failed dismally (to say the least) and was repealed by the 21^st Amendment.

Keep in mind, the right to manufacture, sell, and consume alcohol isn’t even enumerated in the Constitution, but the right to keep and bear arms is . . .