Do I HAVE to go back?

With an assault weapon in each hand, rocker and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent urged National Rifle Association members to be 'hardcore, radical extremists demanding the right to self defense.'

'Let's next year sit here and say, "Holy smokes, the NRA has 40 million members now," he said. 'No one is allowed at our barbecues unless they are an NRA member. Do that in your life.'

[...]

He drew the most cheers when he told gun owners they should never give up their right to bear arms and should use their guns to protect themselves if needed.

'Remember the Alamo! Shoot 'em!' he screamed to applause. 'To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em.'

It's okay. I don't think I'd want to go to his barbecues anyway.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the police in London STILL don't carry guns. London, the largest city in Europe. No guns. I think they might have tazers or something. But not guns. No bullets. If they really wanted to, I'm sure they could kill someone with a tazer, but that takes a lot more will than with a gun. 'Ooops. I was aiming for his leg, not his heart. Oh well. Justice has been served.'

The Second Amendment reads thus: '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.'

Now, I'm now constitutional law scholar, but to me that says that the right 'to keep and bear arms' is intrinsically tied to the maintenance of a 'well regulated militia'. In 1791, most of the population needed a gun. They used it to hunt in order to survive. They used it to protect their homesteads from those pesky Native Americans who seemed to think that this was their land too. And they constituted the militia that was to be a first-response in defending the new nation.

In 2005, however, the vast majority of the population does not need a gun. They don't hunt for survival. They don't need to defend their homesteads. And they're not involved in a militia.

These are the same people (and I realise that I'm making a somewhat broad generalisation) who are against abortion yet for the death penalty. I guess it's just one more contradiction in their thinking about 'the culture of life'. There should be a little star next to 'culture of life'* every time it's printed. Then, down at the bottom of the page: '*Certain restrictions apply. Not valid where prohibited by law. Check your local listings for details. Does not apply to bad people, like homosexuals, Arabs, certain Europeans…'

You get the idea.

But I still don't get why these people seem to think that they need guns.

(the link for the news story came from AmericaBlog)