Gun rights are one of the most defining issues for many conservatives. It isn’t my top issue, due to my devotion to the First Amendment; but, the Second Amendment rights to many are even more sacred than their right to freely speak, practice their faith, and slam politicians.
Nevertheless, the way you perceive your gun rights links back to one basic principal: human’s natural survival instinct.
Yeah, the anti-Gun people reading this would scoff at this line of reasoning; however, when it comes down to it, having some form of protection when faced with scenarios that could physically harm yourself, your family, and your property supersede any preconceived notion.
First off, disregarding and, even at the most extreme level, preventing someone’s ability to protect themselves is a threat to one’s physical ability to fight a negative force, i.e. the fact that a tool for self-protection is being taken away.
If you’re reading this op-ed, I am sure you are one of the millions of Americans who have heard the rhetoric and misinformed hyperbole surrounding gun ownership. Personally, I most love to indulge in arguments against gun rights when people claim that there is no reason to even own guns while living in a country like the United States.
Lo and behold, we have built our country on defending our rights against oppression, in many forms. Remember that little thing called the American Revolution?
Moving from the soap box of my pro-gun rhetoric, even though I love it, I want to draw your attention to the actual public policy efforts in the legislative arenas of many states in the Union. Merely, I wish to briefly document some of the responsible proposals many pro-gun advocates seek to instill in their respective state’s law books to help foster pro-gun rights climates among the states and localities this legislative session.
One particular proposal that captures the entire tone and bravado of the first part of this op-ed is one of the latest constitutional carry efforts to take state governments by storm. Specifically, I am writing on the North Dakota Senate’s recent approval of a constitutional carry law that now only requires the signature of the state’s Governor to go into effect.
In layman’s terms, this new law will grant every legally-aged owner of a firearm in North Dakota the unhindered ability and right to conceal a weapon anywhere guns are legally allowed to be had. So, basically, anywhere besides government buildings, for example.
Other efforts throughout the states include proposals that vary in several components of expanding gun rights. In Ohio, a brand new law that expands concealed carry rights for many owners in the state.
But, the true fights, like the obligatory battles for constitutional rights in Democrat-controlled state legislatures, still skulk the terrain.
In Colorado, the Colorado House of Representatives will be hearing proposals that will grant teachers the right to legally carry in schools, among others. Regardless of that, though, the noteworthy highlights that will come from this hearing are the cases for and against repealing a law from several years ago preventing the usage and sale of certain magazine types. Also, on the darker side of this equation, we will have to expect these pro-gun proposals in Colorado to die in the hearing because of the Democrat-controlled House and far left leaning governor.
At the end of the day, the mission of protecting the Second Amendment won’t just evaporate. We can all get down and dirty in the public policy of it all, but if you wish to effect real changes in how the federal government, the states, and the localities deal with your gun rights, we need to advocate, fiercely.
We live in a society based on representative politics. Let the real people, the real law-abiding gun owners, show the benefit of affirming a pro-Second Amendment sentiment in the national stage.
Law abiding gun owners are soccer moms, that gay couple down the street, the computer programmer who came from Pakistan ten years ago and became a citizen, and, yes, even your grandma. Safety shouldn’t be exclusive, nor should gun ownership be taboo.
