After the Virginia Tech massacre, journalist Tom Plate wrote a commentary for CNN, “Let’s lay down our right to bear arms.” In this commentary (which has, quite rightly, been torn to shreds by Kevin Baker), Plate mentions the odd inclusion of the right to own guns in our Bill of Rights:

The use of guns is often the American technique of choice for all kinds of conflict resolution. Our famous Constitution, about which many of us are generally so proud, enshrines — along with the right to freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly — the right to own guns. That’s an apples and oranges list if there ever was one.

The freedom to freely express yourself. The freedom to spread ideas through a free press. The freedom to assemble with those you wish and to worship as you see fit. The freedom to defend yourself. Is it possible that the last of these rights is not really like the others? Are we really talking about apples and oranges?

I don’t believe we are. The right to bear arms (and, as a corollary, the right to self defense) is different from the rest of the rights listed, but what we are talking about here is not “apples and oranges”. If the other rights listed are apples, then the right to bear arms — the right that says you are permitted to carry a weapon to defend your property and your life — isn’t an orange: it’s the apple tree.