The Right To Bear Arms II
January 30th 2012 16:47
The Supreme Court has interpreted the second amendment to the Constitution, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” as meaning that common, ordinary citizens have the right to own, carry and use weapons for lawful purposes.
I’m not going to argue the merits of this decision, although the real intention of the amendment was probably to enable the United States to rally men to its defense if the country was attacked quickly without having the expense of a standing army (the Army was virtually disbanded after the Revolutionary War), those men being primarily farmers and frontiersmen who had their own weapons and who knew how to use them.
The NRA will tell you that guns don’t harm people; people harm people, and they’re correct. A gun is just a machine that delivers a bullet in what ever direction it’s pointed when the trigger is pulled. They might also tell us that bullets don’t harm people; people harm people, and that would also be technically correct because the bullet only goes to where the gun is pointed when a person points the gun and pulls the trigger, but I think these are just technicalities, and the NRA knows this.
Times have changed. Most people either live in cities or suburbs, but we have been instilled with a frontier paranoia, fearful of getting mugged, pushed around, offended, or looked at askew. I’m not saying that the moment I step out my front door I don’t have to be vigilant; vigilance comes with living in a modern society, but I don’t see Jared Laughner’s face lurking about everywhere I look when I’m strolling through the mall. I don’t feel I have to look into the eyes of everyone I pass to see if they have that same crazy stare and might pull a gun and start shooting.
I don’t begrudge hunters, at least not hunters who eat what they kill, and who kill no more than what they intend to eat. Hey, I like to fish, and fishing is a form of hunting, so maybe the second amendment protects the right to own carry and use fishing paraphernalia (fish hooks are deadly to fish), and I follow my own rule of eating everything I catch and only catching what I intend to eat. I never catch and release because I have no intention of torturing fish; about 50% of the fish released die from exhaustion or injury, and I won’t torture an animal, or a human for that matter.
I also don’t begrudge farmers, ranchers, and those who live in rural areas for feeling the need to own a weapon to protect themselves, their families and their property (livestock as well as homes). I even don’t begrudge those who have been harmed in the past by someone or something and now feel safer with a weapon. What bothers me is seeing some huge, hulking man walking around in full view of the public with a weapon strapped to his hip or hanging under his armpit, daring anyone to mess with him. Nobody would mess with him without the weapon, so why does he need to carry around, in full view of the public, an extension of his penis?
Two years ago, here in Springfield, Missouri, a guy with an open carry permit saw a thief steal an old lady’s purse outside a supermarket. The thief jumped in a car and sped away from the scene of the crime, with our hero in pursuit. Instead of following the thief and calling the police on his cell phone (which he had), he pulled out his gun and emptied it at the fleeing car while he was driving, not hitting anything (that the police know of, fortunately). When he was arrested, along with the thief, he was indignant, along with many people in Springfield; he was only trying to protect the old lady. It didn’t matter to him that, in his testosterone induced rage, he might have injured or killed as many people as he had bullets. That’s the problem with hand gun ownership. In a rage, and most people will find themselves in that situation at sometime in their lives, if the right button is pushed, if a gun is handy, it will be grabbed and used, to everyone’s regret later.
Academy Sports Outdoors, a local sporting goods store here in Springfield, has an ad in the Sunday paper for Baretta PX4 9MM Pistol with a 17 shot clip for $499.99, a bargain. The gun is small enough to fit in a purse, a pocket or hang unobtrusively under an armpit, ready to protect its owner, come to the defense of the public, intimidate anyone who sees it, or shoot squirrels when it’s not being used for anything else.
I’m not going to argue the merits of this decision, although the real intention of the amendment was probably to enable the United States to rally men to its defense if the country was attacked quickly without having the expense of a standing army (the Army was virtually disbanded after the Revolutionary War), those men being primarily farmers and frontiersmen who had their own weapons and who knew how to use them.
The NRA will tell you that guns don’t harm people; people harm people, and they’re correct. A gun is just a machine that delivers a bullet in what ever direction it’s pointed when the trigger is pulled. They might also tell us that bullets don’t harm people; people harm people, and that would also be technically correct because the bullet only goes to where the gun is pointed when a person points the gun and pulls the trigger, but I think these are just technicalities, and the NRA knows this.
Times have changed. Most people either live in cities or suburbs, but we have been instilled with a frontier paranoia, fearful of getting mugged, pushed around, offended, or looked at askew. I’m not saying that the moment I step out my front door I don’t have to be vigilant; vigilance comes with living in a modern society, but I don’t see Jared Laughner’s face lurking about everywhere I look when I’m strolling through the mall. I don’t feel I have to look into the eyes of everyone I pass to see if they have that same crazy stare and might pull a gun and start shooting.
I don’t begrudge hunters, at least not hunters who eat what they kill, and who kill no more than what they intend to eat. Hey, I like to fish, and fishing is a form of hunting, so maybe the second amendment protects the right to own carry and use fishing paraphernalia (fish hooks are deadly to fish), and I follow my own rule of eating everything I catch and only catching what I intend to eat. I never catch and release because I have no intention of torturing fish; about 50% of the fish released die from exhaustion or injury, and I won’t torture an animal, or a human for that matter.
I also don’t begrudge farmers, ranchers, and those who live in rural areas for feeling the need to own a weapon to protect themselves, their families and their property (livestock as well as homes). I even don’t begrudge those who have been harmed in the past by someone or something and now feel safer with a weapon. What bothers me is seeing some huge, hulking man walking around in full view of the public with a weapon strapped to his hip or hanging under his armpit, daring anyone to mess with him. Nobody would mess with him without the weapon, so why does he need to carry around, in full view of the public, an extension of his penis?
Two years ago, here in Springfield, Missouri, a guy with an open carry permit saw a thief steal an old lady’s purse outside a supermarket. The thief jumped in a car and sped away from the scene of the crime, with our hero in pursuit. Instead of following the thief and calling the police on his cell phone (which he had), he pulled out his gun and emptied it at the fleeing car while he was driving, not hitting anything (that the police know of, fortunately). When he was arrested, along with the thief, he was indignant, along with many people in Springfield; he was only trying to protect the old lady. It didn’t matter to him that, in his testosterone induced rage, he might have injured or killed as many people as he had bullets. That’s the problem with hand gun ownership. In a rage, and most people will find themselves in that situation at sometime in their lives, if the right button is pushed, if a gun is handy, it will be grabbed and used, to everyone’s regret later.
Academy Sports Outdoors, a local sporting goods store here in Springfield, has an ad in the Sunday paper for Baretta PX4 9MM Pistol with a 17 shot clip for $499.99, a bargain. The gun is small enough to fit in a purse, a pocket or hang unobtrusively under an armpit, ready to protect its owner, come to the defense of the public, intimidate anyone who sees it, or shoot squirrels when it’s not being used for anything else.
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