To The Editor,

“You can have it, but you can’t use it,” should be the motto of the RI Senate since its vote to pass the “safe-storage gun bill.” (Senate approves ‘safe-storage’ gun bill, News, March 20)

The Second Amendment was meant to provide the American people with the right to arm themselves to help protect their country from its enemies (foreign and domestic); the right to bear arms for hunting to provide food for their families; and the right to keep and use firearms to protect themselves and their families from home invaders and other attackers.

The key word in the right to protect from home invaders is “use.”  One cannot “use” a firearm if it is locked in a safe or other secure container.  The secret to stopping a home invader is speed of access to the means to stop the attacker.  A gun is useless if it can’t be reached in time for use, and a right is not a right if it can’t be exercised in time for its purpose.

 Adding the “locked container” provision to the Second Amendment right is tantamount to adding to the First Amendment a requirement that citizens cannot speak until they have waited a government-prescribed amount of time before voicing their opinions--a period after which the citizen’s opinion is dead to public discourse.

Lonnie Barham

Warwick