So I was reading the Star Tribune at work today and noticed a letter to the editor that didn’t make any sense. To give those of you outside of Minnesota some perspective the Star Tribune has to nick names, the Red Star and the Star and Sickle. They are a very “progressive” liberal leaning paper as are a majority of their readers. Well this letter made me realize people still don’t get the reason behind the second amendment:
Earlier this month, Josh Hendrickson brought two concealed guns to the Obama rally in Minneapolis, apparently to make a point about the Second Amendment. Other than being dressed in army fatigues and packing a .40 caliber Glock 22 gun and a Kel Tec 380 gun, he was just another (self-described) laid-back guy who loves kids and his country right? Really? When there’s already a conceal-and-carry law, what’s the point?
This type of behavior is yet another example of the extreme lengths the hard-core gun-rights activists seem committed to in the interest of furthering their cause. I’m a hunter and have been for the last 45 years. I am also a supporter of gun rights. It’s precisely this type of extremist behavior that tends to undermine our future as hunters.
As a hunter, I feel it’s important to make a distinction between the more extreme side of the gun-rights lobby that supports such things as assault rifles, conceal-and-carry laws, etc., from the right to bear arms for hunting. There’s a more effective, less extreme approach to the gun-rights issue, such as the basic preservation of hunters’ rights to bear arms, but I seldom hear fellow hunters make this point.
I’m going to assume he meant to say “assault weapons” as assault rifles are heavily regulated i this country but alas he believes supporting the right to own military pattern semi-automatic rifles and an ability to effectively defend yourself are extreme? Strange. Then he mentions the right to bear arms for hunting and strangely enough many people hunt with those guns labeled by the anti-gun crowd as “assault weapons.”
Of course he talks about how since there are conceal and carry laws the point of bringing firearms to rallies meaningless. This isn’t the point of what these people are doing, they are raising awareness of our eroding second amendment rights in general. It’s not only about concealed carry laws but all gun laws in general. More to the point it’s about abolishing gun control laws and restoring the true meaning to the second amendment.
This is the type of person we don’t need, a person who says they’re for the second amendment but only so far as it extends to hunting. These are the types of people that are OK with stomping on other peoples’ rights so long as the rights they enjoy are left alone. I have a name for these people, assholes.