If this is the first article of mine you’re reading, I highly advise you go read the first installment. In short, the gun community does a horrible job when trying to get women involved. More importantly it does a horrible job to get them to WANT to be involved in the industry. I point out one issue in particular but I assure you the issues are farther reaching than simply dismissing them as gun bunnies.
Another issue facing the gun community and the issue I want to address in this article is we eat our own. There is no secret that the gun community is often its own worst enemy. This is magnified on social media but the evidence is all around. A microcosm of this issue can be observed right in front of us with the National Rifle Association. While there are some positive attributes to the accomplishments of the NRA, their failures and shortcomings are certainly quicker to take the spotlight. Their support for the D.C. v. Heller case in 2008 scored a resounding victory for the Second Amendment. However, their more recent support of the Bump Stock ban and “red-flag” laws have left them seemingly in ruins.
But the point of this article is not to debate the issues with the gun community having a lack of proper lobbyist organizations. The issues plaguing the NRA are symptomatic of the greater issue at-hand. There is a fundamental failure to understand and acknowledge the true meaning of the Second Amendment. Ask a room full of people what the Second Amendment means to them and you are bound to get differing answers. Be it simple self-defense, hunting, competition, or even a combination of those things many will accept certain limitations and even agree with some of the laws and regulations that blatantly infringe on the right that clearly states that it “shall not be infringed.”
This is not going to be popular or easy to digest but the intent of the Second Amendment is quite simple. It ensures that the people, the citizens of this nation, are endowed with the ability and capability to defend themselves from tyrants. Anyone else seeking to impose their will or the will of a government on the citizenry and ultimately attempting to restrict their freedoms deserves to be resisted. This means, the ability to fight for liberty which implies by force and through bloodshed if necessary. Sport, hunting, whatever other leisurely spin-offs we enjoy with firearms are merely byproduct.
In reality, the competition and recreational aspects of firearms can be directly tied to additional training and retention or refinement of skills to be better fighters against tyranny. During the English rule over Scotland, the clans were barred from owning or training with swords. Scotsmen invented games based using stones and large logs to train and keep themselves ready for combat in the absence of the ability to own swords. The games were also used my royalty to observe and select men that would make the best soldiers. Let that sink in for a moment. We do the same thing with guns, many refuse to admit that it is more of a game than a training evolution.
The point is there are people who are content with at least having stones and logs. The rest seem to realize the importance of swords. Until we can come to a clear understanding of the true meaning of the Second Amendment then we will continue to fight among ourselves. Instead we should be united and while enjoying our recreation as free men and women, keeping an watchful eye out for tyrants and the death of a thousand cuts that seem to be slowly killing the rest of our rights that form the foundation of what makes us free.
Leave a Reply