On the 2nd Amendment

Guys, I'm all about gun rights, and I understand the dangerous implications when governments start slowly taking away people's guns (Hitler and Austria, par example). I agree with the logic that says if one bad man in a movie theater with a gun tries to start shooting people, then three good men with guns in the same movie theater is a quicker and more effective way to save innocent lives than waiting for the police while the bad man kills 10 more people.

But the second amendment is not about you having the right to strap your 44. on your leg and walk down the street (though, if read literally, I suppose it does provide for that). It's about the necessity for a free state to have a (well regulated) militia. The second amendment isn't about personal weapons. It's about the freedom of a state and that it's necessary to have a well-armed militia in order to have a free state.

If you want to take the 2nd Amendment seriously, forget your handguns and hunting rifles. That amendment more closely advocates an M4 over the fire place in every household than it does Joe Blow carryin his revolver into town.

Put a government provided assault rifle in every home, and THEN maybe you can think about cutting a little military funding. Who wants to invade a land full of Americans packin M4s? And more practically speaking, who wants to rob a house where Daddy might come bustin outta the bedroom at any minute with an assault rifle?

So yes - the second amendment plainly says: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." And that means you have the right to own guns and carry them. But you have to understand why you have that right. And it's not just to be 'Murican and shoot things. It's so that if your free state is in danger, you have the right and privilege to take up arms and defend her.