On the 2^nd Amendment

The 2nd Amendment is about a lot of things, but it never was about what anyone thinks is better, much less a better "big game rifle" or target rifle. Targets are targets, the best target gun is whatever you enjoy shooting or whatever class or specific competition you are trying to compete in. Again, making something convenient for you or enjoyable for you (or anyone) is not related to the 2nd Amendment right.

The core of the 2nd Amendment right, repeated not just in the Bill of Rights but throughout much later state constitutions is self-defense. When Delaware added this in 1987, they were not talking about muskets: it was 1987. "A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and State, and for hunting and recreational use." Art. I, § 20 (enacted 1987).

In 1998, the people of Wisconsin voted for Constitutional Carry in a state referendum amending the state constitution. The amendment, which created Article I, Section 25, is very clear. It received 74% of the vote. From Article I Section 25:  "The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose."

Alaska: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The individual right to keep and bear arms shall not be denied or infringed by the State or a political subdivision of the State." Art. I, § 19 (first sentence enacted 1959, second sentence added 1994). Updated in 1994 with the second sentence added, the reference isn't about muskets. In 1994, of course, it is modern firearms that are being referred to. "The individual right to keep and bear arms shall not be denied or infringed by the State or a political subdivision of the State." That is crystal clear, unambiguous language with no wiggle room.

AR-15's have been sold to civilians since the 1960's: the AR-15 was of course included and not excluded by Delaware, Alaska, or many other states. Twenty-five or thirty-five years after the AR-15 was in common use by civilians, these constitutional amendments were passed. Any number of other rifles are common, and were common. Before these amendments were passed, the Ruger Mini-14 was quite popular. The Ruger Mini-14 is 45 years old today and over 850,000 have been sold. The Ruger Mini-14 itself is common, usual, popular, and old.

The core of the 2nd Amendment right, reinforced federally and through the states is lawful defense of self and others. Whatever someone's version of a better moose gun might be is immaterial: the Ruger Mini-14 / Mini-30 and AR-15 platform rifles are as good for home defense as anything and better than some things. Effective defense firearms such as the Mini-14 and AR-15 are exactly what Delaware, Alaska, and other states quite recently have explicitly protected from government infringement or tampering.

The M1 carbine has been produced commercially for civilian use since 1945. It is a 75 year old rifle, you can get 10, 15, 20, or 30 round detachable box magazines. It is nothing new, it is as common as dirt, and with over 6,000,000 or them produced for WWII alone, everyone who ever wanted one after the war got three. No one bothered labeling the .30 carbine as an "assault weapon," and they raised just about zero eyebrows through popular civilian ownership in the late 1940s, through the 1950, the 1960s, and few bother to rant about them today.

The M1 carbine always was a close-range defensive weapon and its replacement, the AR-15 was the same: a target rifle for the Air Force though Gen. Curtis LeMay. In July of 1960, Air Force General Curtis LeMay attended the Fourth of July party where a Colt salesman put three watermelons on a firing range at distances of 50, 100 and 150 yards — then gave General LeMay an AR-15 and some loaded magazines. Hitting watermelons was apparently all it took to impress Gen. LeMay. Although he is said to have ordered 80,000 of them on the spot, that order was held up for a couple of years, dwindling to 8500 which was delayed a few times until May of 1962.

AR-15's are used for self-defense constantly, and also for target shooting and hunting. What they are not used for very often is crime: 1% of gun homicides, approximately. How stupendously bizarre for Dick's (or anyone else) to thoughtlessly ignore the 99%. This is beyond brain-dead.

What Dick's Sporting Goods is, is blatantly dishonest and opportunistic. If they were sincere about not wanting to sell AR-15's, now suddenly a bad thing, well . . . they would gladly offer full refunds on all AR-15's, magazines, accessories, and ammunition they have ever sold. No chance of that, they have long been happy to keep the money from their sales that they now, spectacularly hypocritically, think should be banned. Captain Obvious knows that they only call for a "ban" on things they no longer sell. How just too convenient is that?

Despite the media fascination (obsession) with only Armalite-platform rifles, the choice for home defense may well be a Mini-14, an M1 carbine, a Kel-Tec Sub-2000, or a Ruger PC9.

What is referred to as a "gun problem" or "epidemic" clearly is not. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upsh ... cides.html . Most of the problem is suicide. If you think this is a problem, all you have to do is just convince people not to kill themselves, and roughly 2/3rds of the problem is gone. Dick's has no clue about that. AR-15's are rarely used in suicide, for that matter, either. Dick's ignores that.

What is dishonest is not recognizing that guns are used for lawful self-defense 750,000 times or more per year, every year. Criminologist Gary Kleck (Gary Kleck is the David J. Bordua professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University.) puts it above 2,000,000.

Gary Kleck's work shows an estimated 2.2-2.5 million Defensive Gun Uses happen in the U.S. every year. That's less than 1% of the guns owned in the United States, and further, the Kleck/Gertz study found that 76 percent of the Defensive Gun Uses did not involve firing the weapons. In 1997 NSPOF projected 4.7 million DGU per year by 1.5 million individuals after weighting to eliminate false positives.

If you want to take away AR-15's from legal owners who use them for self-defense, innocent gun owners will die. That means younger, female, and older folks who may have trouble with handguns, and cannot easily handle high recoil or excessive muzzle flash arms . . . but can and do use AR-15's confidently and competently.

Take away AR-15s from the single mother, the young, the old, the frail . . . you have turned them into victims and have legislated away their ability to defend themselves. Nor are women only concerned about the ability to defend themselves in the home. One example is Cook County, Illinois. Black women in Cook County had the sharpest growth — 67 percent from 2014 to 2016 — of any demographic group receiving concealed carry permits in Cook County, based on applicants who disclosed both their race and gender.

If you like the idea of single mothers and their children becoming victims, take away their legally owned AR-15's and 30 round magazines. You've just made the world a safer place . . . for criminals.

©2018 by Randy Wakeman. All Rights Reserved.