RAIMIUS wrote:
The US doesn't have the right to keep and bear arms for hunting. Think about it for a second. Why would a bunch of revolutionaries want to make sure people had access to firearms?...
To protect themselves from a tyrannical Federal Government if the need arose. Also to protect from military coup/other.
James Madison wrote:
"To these (federal troops attempting to impose tyranny) would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands." (Federalist Papers #46)
Samuel Adams wrote:
"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the right of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; ...or to prevent the people from petitioning , in a peaceable and orderly manner; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions." (Debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788, p86-87)
George Mason wrote:
"I ask, Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." (Jonathan Elliot, The Debates of the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, [NY: Burt Franklin,1888] p.425-6)
"Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised ...to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia..." (In Virginia’s Ratifying Convention, Elliot p.3:379-380)
"The militia may be here destroyed by that method which has been practiced in other parts of the world before; that is, by rendering them useless - by disarming them." (Elliot, p. 3:379-80)
"I consider and fear the natural propensity of rulers to oppress the people. I wish only to prevent them from doing evil." (In Virginia’s Ratifying Convention, Elliot p.3:381)
RAIMIUS wrote:
...but to throw more wrenches in your argument...
Almost every gun can be used to hunt.
Many semi-auto shotguns are specifically designed to be used for hunting.
What if someone stole my guns and shot up a school? Are you kidding me?
Someone could also steal my car and run over people, but that doesn't really concern me very much. I lock my car and my firearms. If someone figures out where my firearms are, breaks through the multiple locks on them, then uses them for crime...well, that sucks for the victims (including me)...but it's not my fault.
