You Should Have a Gun

I always think that Pro-Gun people make far too elaborate excuses for why they own a firearm in the first place. Assuming that you're one of the many responsible gun owners out there, I don't think you need to say anything to explain why you own a gun other than... "It's my right and sacred duty to family and country to not only own, but know how to safely handle firearms."

Whenever I can find a well worded defense of gun ownership--one that avoids the trappings of "self defense" or "I need my semi-automatic assault rifle to hunt!" (Here's a hint, you're full of it!)--I feel the need to share it with as many people as I can.

In fact, this piece does such a good job at articulating many of my thoughts on the issue, I'm not going to even bother writing any more on it at the moment and skip right to sharing some of the highlights...

Excerpts from: You Should Have a Gun
by Jimulacrum [ Read the original ]

• You should have a gun. You really should.
  
  
• Hunting and self-defense are two secondary reasons why the government isn’t permitted to infringe on your right, as an American citizen, to bear arms.
  
  
• (Referring to the 2nd Amerndment) -- It doesn’t say anything about hunting. It doesn’t say anything about personal defense either. It contains two major parts: a justification of the right, and an unqualified declaration of the right. The justification explains that the importance of this right is that is allows for local, organized defense (though nowhere does it restrict the right to this purpose). It is not referring to the National Guard of each state. It is referring to civilians maintaining the ability to organize themselves into effective military units if the need should arise.
  

• That is why the people of the United States have a right—second only to free speech, free religion, free assembly, and redress of grievances—to own and to carry weapons of their choosing, with no limits. Everything from slingshots to missiles to laser rifles is forbidden to the government to restrict. And that right exists primarily so that we may defend ourselves against the government if it becomes necessary, with the same level of force that the government can employ.
  
  
•  Governments cannot be trusted to correct themselves once they’ve gone bad.
  
  
• Unarmed citizens command no authority and present potential government thugs no deterrent to abuse. Armed citizens represent a power to be reckoned with; any large-scale assault upon them risks running into effective resistance.
  
  
• No one is saying you should keep an automatic rifle loaded under your bed, ready and waiting to be brought into battle. There’s no call to attack the government. There’s no need to join a militia if you don’t want to. But you should have a gun, and you should learn to use, store, and maintain it properly. You should assert and protect your and your fellow citizens’ right to keep and bear arms. And you should never forget why.
   

I don't think I could have said it better myself...


.