Why the 2nd Amendment is About MUCH More Than Hunting

The inimitable Mrs. DuToit tells us here why the Second Amendment is such an important part of the Constitution. Although it does cover things like our right to hunt, it also covers things like self-defense from criminals who would do us and our families harm, and it is our last line of defense in case our government ever gets so out of control that it becomes tyrannical. It seems that we have ever more elected representatives who would like to nanny-state regulate every aspect of our lives, but our government as a whole hasn't reached as bad a place as pre-Revolutionary War Britain, or heaven forbid, a socialist hellhole like North Korea or any number of Islamist-run Third World crapholes...yet. If it ever does, or gets close enough where we the people can see the precipice approaching, and there are no other options left, that's where the Second Amendment has its ultimate value. Read the whole thing.

"The Second Amendment, which articulates your “right to bear arms,” has NOTHING TO DO WITH HUNTING.

Hunting is an activity that is not specifically articulated as a right in the Bill of Rights. It doesn’t need to be articulated because the ability to own a gun for defense of self/realm provides the umbrella protection of gun ownership that hunters and other shooting sports participants can find cover. However, the semantics of this are terribly important, as we’re constantly treated to a parade of politicians donning their Elmer Fudd outfits come election season, to show their kinship with hunters to demonstrate how they support hunters’ rights.

We do not care how you feel about hunters’ rights. We want to know how you feel about ALL of us. We want to know, as Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp of Texas has said, “how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.”

It is important NOT to mince words about the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment articulates (not grants) the right of citizens to own guns to defend themselves AGAINST THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT. It is articulated so that we can, should they decide that the government is something other than a Republic by and of The People, to SHOOT THE BASTARDS. It is so that we can drag tyrants from their homes and kill them, whether they are home grown tyrants or foreign ones. It is so that this government cannot decide that it doesn’t want to respect any of our other rights. It is a last resort to prevent tyranny and a constant reminder not to try it.

We want and demand the right to own scary looking guns (regardless of the fact that some non-scary looking ones not included in assault weapons bans have the EXACT same functionality) so that we SCARE THE BEJEESUS out of our elected representatives. That’s the PURPOSE of having them: to instill fear and to remind them that their hold on us is limited. We have the power and the means to fight back and to make WAR on them. ...
The gun community understands the great responsibility of firearm ownership. We get that. We understand that we own tools to make war and death. We police our own, doing our best to purge the whack jobs and nut cases from our ranks. We do this because we ALSO understand the order of bringing about change is the four boxes:
1. Soap
2. Ballot
3. Jury
4. Cartridge

In that order and never getting to the last until the first three boxes are completely and entirely gone from us. ...

We, collectively, give our government a tremendous amount of our trust. We give them the power to make and enforce laws. We give them the power to incarcerate those among us who refuse to abide by those laws. With that trust we demand only the commensurate, reciprocal trust: You may make war against us, so we retain the right and the means to make war against you. It is a permanent and perpetual stand off. It is a mutual destruction pact. We do not ever expect to need to make war against our own government and will fight with the first three boxes with diligence and voraciousness, but we will make sure the need to go to the guns will never happen by keeping and maintaining our insurance policy: exercising the right to own guns, and doing so responsibly.

We scream, shout, WRITE, and we VOTE. As long as they remember that and respect our rights to the first three boxes, they have nothing to fear from the last."