The Second Amendment doesn't mention hunting

[Buzz cook]

That's a refrain I hear a lot from gun kissers. They say it as a rebuke to hunters such as myself that aren't 2nd Amendment absolutists.

They're right of course.

The second also doesn't mention target shooting, skeet and trap, or firearms collecting.

I also should add it doesn't mention a right to self defense.

Many gun lickers claim to be strict constructionist or original intent believers. It's not strange that they would threaten hunters with the lose of their rights because hunting is not an enumerated right. But the disconnect when they then claim that the 2nd is an absolute right to self protection, must give them mental whiplash.

Of course one cannot expect sense from Mall Ninjas

[krispos42]

1. Gun kissers? Gun lickers?

How'd you know my secret passion?

[east texas lib]

8. Saaaaayyyy...

That's a fine lookin' piece of....wood!;-)

[krispos42]

10. It's a hard wood, too.

Might wax it later...

:evilgrin:

[jody]

2. What point are you trying to make? n/t

[jmg257]

3. The 2nd secures the right to keep and bear arms - period. What you do with them

is up to you (like all other private property) as long as it doesn't inflict the rights of others.

Proposed amendment from the Pennsylvania ratifing committee:

"7. That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and their own state, or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; and no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals; "

[slackmaster]

4. I'll see your gun kissers and lickers and raise you a gun-grabbing monkey

Actually it's an ape.

[Retired AF Dem]

6. And a gun licker back at you

By http://profile.imageshack.us/user/bruckner>bruckner at 2008-02-24

[SteveM]

14. See what happens when women take 'em up? And I thought it was my age (nt)

[EricTeri]

5. Somehow you got that whole thing 100% wrong.

The reason gun rights advocates remind people the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with hunting is NOT as a rebuke to hunters. Far from it in fact.

It is mentioned because so many people want to imply that hunting is the only reason one may own a firearm.

And no - the 2nd doesnt mention any of the things you mentioned - for a reason. The 2nd exists to tell government what it may not do, not to tell the people what they may do.

[Boomer 50]

7. Well said!

As a hunter and collector, and industry manufacturer, I have a broad interest in firearms. Not just one aspect.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

9. So He Was Right About What He Said About Hunting and the Constitution

How does that make him 100% wrong again?

[SteveM]

15. See Post #5. The Constitution is couched in appropriately "negative" terms.

[gorfle]

11. The Second Amendment, etc.

That's a refrain I hear a lot from gun kissers. They say it as a rebuke to hunters such as myself that aren't 2nd Amendment absolutists.

They're right of course.

The second also doesn't mention target shooting, skeet and trap, or firearms collecting.

I also should add it doesn't mention a right to self defense.

Many gun lickers claim to be strict constructionist or original intent believers. It's not strange that they would threaten hunters with the lose of their rights because hunting is not an enumerated right. But the disconnect when they then claim that the 2nd is an absolute right to self protection, must give them mental whiplash.

Of course one cannot expect sense from Mall Ninjas

I have never heard of a pro-gun advocate who wanted hunters to lose their right to bear arms, or even to lose their right to hunt. I suppose their are some pro-gun, anti-hunting folks out there though.

In any case, the 2nd Amendment is, first and foremost, about maintaining a well regulated militia, necessary for the security of a free state. It is primarily for defense against a central government tyranny that our country was founded with a decentralized, state-controlled military force.

That said, the arms were frequently provided by the citizens who made up the militia, and moreover, it is not that much of a stretch to say that the most fundamental freedom is the security of one's personal defense. If one can defend the State, then why not the defense of oneself? And if one is unable to defend oneself, how then to defend the State?

[jody]

12. I disagree "2nd Amendment is, first and foremost, about maintaining a well regulated militia".

The right to keep and bear arms is first and foremost about defense of self and property as PA (1776) and VT (1777) said in their first constitutions.

The second use of personal arms is defense of state.

[benEzra]

13. You're right, it doesn't make the right to keep and bear arms conditional on hunting,

or on self-defense, or on target shooting, or on collecting. It sets no conditions.

It merely sets out an intended outcome, i.e. the existence of a well-trained* militia, and then the statement of the right: the right of the people to keep and bear arms (not solely hunting arms, not solely defensive arms) shall not be infringed.

In recent years, the gun-control lobby has attempted to make it conditional on hunting, by outlawing all but hunting-style weapons, as if the right to keep and bear arms were contingent on being a hunter.

Yes, 4 out of 5 gun owners are nonhunters. That doesn't mean that the 1 in 5 who hunt should have their guns banned (I support hunting 100%, FWIW), but it does mean that hunters aren't the only gun owners who matter.

That's a refrain I hear a lot from gun kissers...Many gun lickers claim to be strict constructionist or original intent believers...Of course one cannot expect sense from Mall Ninjas

Please, let's have a higher level of discourse here. "You're a poopiehead" rhetoric was lame even in junior high.


----------------------
Thoughts on Gun Ownership

Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control


*Look up "regulated" in the OED--the primary meaning in 1791 was not "under the control of bureaucrats."