I don’t get the hunting thing. If you want to do it, fine. But there is really only one reason to own a gun: to kill human beings.
The left holds this up as an indictment of guns, and second amendment advocates often hide behind hunting. But it should be taken as a virtue. Prior to the invention of the firearm, the ability to easily kill human beings was expensive and confined largely to the upper classes. You can make a powerful case that the gun is the most democratic invention in history.
“But there is really only one reason to own a gun: to kill human beings.”
I disagree with you here. There are a number of reasons to own firearms. One is sport (skeet shooting, target shooting) and another is hunting.
Of course these are not the reasons that our founding fathers had in mind. They had in mind a check on governmental tyranny and self protection, but it does not diminish the other uses of firearms.
I also do not like when politicians try to get the gun lobby on their side by taking pictures out hunting somewhere or talking about hunting (see John Kerry 2004 or Mitt Romney 2007). However, I believe that an important aspect in changing peoples minds about the gun issue is to get them to actually handle a gun. Target shooting, sporting and hunting are great ways to introduce people to a firearm.
After people realize that with the safe handling of a firearm it is not going to bite them. That’ a big first step in converting another 2A person.
Some people believe it’s better to learn to do things by themselves. Whether it’s working on a car, doing electrical work on a house or providing your own food. There are people who love eating food from wildlife such as venison, duck or turkey. They do everything they can to cut out the middle man. It’s a sense of pride.
Some people don’t know where their fuse box is.
There’s also the people who would love to own a fleet of cars, a couple of airplanes or a collection of guns. All items which show mechanical genius.
There’s also the people who don’t know how to turn a screwdriver.
The shooting sports has a multitude of events and only a handful are at the Olympics.
There’s also those people who can’t get off the couch.