As a criminal defense attorney, I obviously deal with a lot of people who have guns when they should not; rarely does an accused person, at least in my experience pack heat with a license.

At one time I also believed that no one should have things like an AK-47; I equated it to something like Second Amendment pornography. I understood that people would want a gun for protection, but an AK-47? Then my friend and I took the AK-47 to the middle of the desert and shot cans of condensed milk. I have to admit,  there maybe a legitimate use for the AK-47.

The recent reports about protesters showing up at town hall meeting with assault rifles to protect themselves, “from the will of the majority”[1] has frightened me; do people actually think it is allowed under the Second Amendment to bring guns to a town hall meeting? More specifically a town hall meeting with the President of the United States in attendance?

As I begin my second year of practice in Indiana, I have noticed that just as inappropriately prosecutors in Indiana are wearing concealed handguns in court. First for safety reasons alone, this is a terrible idea. Often defendants, brought over from the jail are sitting in mass, sometimes 10 or 20 at a time in close proximity to the prosecutor. Why give them the temptation to take a gun off of a prosecutor when his attention is focused on the court?

With every right comes a responsibility. Everyday I work with people who have forgotten that, whether they are defendants or police officers or anyone else. The Second Amendment does allow Americans the right to bear arms, but that right must yield to the general safety of the public, a right so basic that there is no need to explicitly state it in our Constitution. One could argue that safety and stability are among the chief goals of our Constitution. To allow prosecutors to carry concealed weapons in court, undermines those goals, in the very forum where it is supposed to be enforced.

[1] http://ken_ashford.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/guns-at-obama-town-hall-meetings.html