After the shootings at Virginia Tech (VT), along with millions of Americans I thought about the 2nd Amendment to our US Constitution, the right to bear arms. Contrary to the wishes of many on the left, the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that this right is for individuals, not just the various branches of our US military. (It will most likely go to the US Supreme Court.)

So, just why is this right to bear arms important?

One of my former college students was an immigrant from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a very bright, articulate young man. As with most of my African students, he fluently speaks three languages, one of which is English. He shared the following stories with me.

As a teenager attending junior high school in Addis Ababa, he and his friends were often pursued by what he called the government "goon squad" on their way home from school. If they did not outrun the thugs, they were kidnapped and sent to the mine fields between Ethiopia and Eretrea - where they were forced to walk the fields to trigger mines set by enemies. As he said, the only time his friends returned alive was when they were missing an arm, a leg, an eye, etc. He was lucky, he was always able to outrun the thugs.

Part two of the story was this. His father kept a loaded handgun with him at all times in their home. His dad's logic was that even if the goon squads entered their house, he (the dad) could take out one or two of the thugs before being murdered himself.

In spite of our problems, in spite of many of the leftist, control obsessed politicians, we do live in a safe country - just ask a legal immigrant. Our 2nd Amendment is one of the key reasons we are free.