No John, maybe YOU don't get it

John H. Adler contends that Americans who believe in the Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms "don't get it."

Nowhere in the civilized world are civilians permitted to carry arms unless they have specific reasons to do so.

Well John, as it turns out, American civilians who carry arms do have specific reasons for doing so--defense against crime, defense against tyranny (the biggest reason), and defense against becoming a contemptible, helpless herbivore.

Thanks to the unbelievable political power of the NRA, almost anyone within the USA can obtain a license to purchase a gun.

Actually, in most parts of the U.S., no "license" is required to purchase a gun--and those jurisdictions that do require a government-issued permission slip violate the Constitutional rights of their citizens.

Why, and for what purpose, are we arming ourselves?
For self defense? Bull! Before you pull your gun, you’re dead.

Have you mentioned that to the more than three quarters of a million people per year who do successfully use a gun to defend themselves (without a shot being fired, the vast majority of the time)? For a day-by-day accounting of some defensive uses of firearms in which shots are fired, click here.

What possible legitimate reason can there be for owning an automatic handgun?

Fully automatic handguns are very heavily regulated and almost never used in crimes (or for much of anything else, really). If you refer to semi-automatic handguns--the answer is that they are quite effective personal sidearms. That's why the vast majority of police departments choose them in preference to revolvers, and why no military service, to my knowledge, issues revolvers.

Surely our forefathers did not intend to create a country filled with potential murderers.

The Second Amendment was indeed not intended to empower murderers, any more than the First Amendment was intended to empower libelers and liars. The Constitution was clearly written by men who understood that the recognition of the fundamental, natural right of self-defense threatens only those who would violate the rights of others. The tragedy is that this understanding is clearly no longer universal, or even very widespread.

In some states it is permissible to carry concealed, or even openly displayed, weapons. Have we become a nation of vigilantes?

No, but if you have your way, we will certainly become A Nation of Cowards.

We "get it," John--and to anyone who wants to get our guns, we say "Molon labe."