That's Not What We Meant

So I've been reading "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers" and it has set me to thinking about a few things. One thing in particular, the second amendment and it's original purpose.
In 1787 the thought of using your rifle for hunting or personal protection would have been second nature. In fact Thomas Jefferson provides this thought on guns..."A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."
As far as our 3rd President was concerned carrying your gun as your constant companion was not only good for your body but good for your mind. The ownership and use of a firearm carries with it a great responsibility and the ability to live up to that responsibility lends insight into your character. For those of us that exercise our second amendment rights this knowledge usually passes from one generation to the next, a family tradition and part of our American heritage. The relationship of mentor and student bears witness to the conscious employment of firearms safety and proper care and maintenance. Most of all it should produce gun owners who give thought to every circumstance in which their gun will be employed before they consider using it. In hunting by knowing their limits and only taking a clean shot for a clean kill and in self defense by being aware of their surroundings and the situation at hand before they have to live with the consequences of drawing their weapon. These are good lessons and have not changed since Thomas Jefferson wrote those words, but they are not what the founders had in mind when they provided us with the second amendment.
As much as we hear about our outdoor heritage and our right to self defense during every election you would think that the founding fathers whiled away every day hunting deer and shooting home intruders. While the second amendment provides us with these benefits it does so only because sport and self defense are the things we employ the use of firearms for as individuals, as "the people."

"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."

Around the time of the founding of our country the Militia of any given state was considered pretty much every able bodied man. Before the states ratified the Constitution and became "United" there was a lot of concern that a centralized government would tread freely upon the rights of the people. States were considered sovereign and independent of one another in their governing. After gaining freedom from the oppression of a tyrannical monarchical government in England the representatives of the states were mistrusting of any concentration of power that could be easily corrupted. Rightfully so. The Bill of Rights ,including the second amendment, was added as extra incentive to assure the dissenters that this new nation founded on the Constitution would not be corruptible. I know, I know, best intentions. The reason, and the only reason that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed was put in the bill of rights was in order to give the people the ability to throw off the chains of oppressive government and once more secure the blessings of liberty, if ever need be. I'm not trying to say that we need to load up and head out looking for a fight. I am saying that without passing on our heritage and helping to build , as Jefferson might say, bold enterprising citizens of independent mind and good character we will have lost much more than our right to bear arms. We will have lost the independent spirit that has defined The United States from the battlefields of the revolution to today. Once that right is gone, once America's citizens are disarmed the rest of our rights are unprotected and not worth the brittle yellowed paper they were written on.
Enjoy your hunting and rest easy knowing your home is protected but listen for the first person running for public office with the courage to support the second amendment not just because he is a hunter but because he knows its importance to ensuring the liberty of a free state. He may be a bold man of independent mind and good character, Jefferson would certainly be proud.