Jim Darnell: Zumbo II

The original article has been nuked, but its ghost remains in the Google cache..

I’m a strong Second Amendment rights person. I stand against fire arms registration and government control and confiscation of our guns. But I strongly feel that the firearm manufacturers of our country are making a big mistake in producing the AR-15 sporting rifles.

And he goes on to describe how the AR-15 is such a scary looking weapon.

These modern sporting rifles are inflammatory in looks — they don’t look like modern hunting rifles. They are military in looks. They look like they were produced to kill men, not deer.

And my reply to him is, "And?" A lot of the Fudd-types forget that one of the many uses of a firearm is to kill people. As a "strong Second Amendment rights person", he should realize that the Second Amendment is not about hunting.

Granted, the new AR-15’s are compact, light, rugged and accurate. They make excellent hunting rifles. The problem is their inflammatory looks.

And? If someone is inflammed by the looks of someone else's property, that's a personal problem.

I don’t think the argument is valid. After WW II, crazy terrorists weren’t running through the streets firing 1903 bolt action Springfields into the air.

No Arab terrorists were on the daily newscasts blasting people with the semi-automatic Garand after WW II.

It’s the AK-47 and its long history with revolution, riots and terrorism that’s the problem.

Well, it looks like the terrorists won in Jim Darnell's world. They have sufficiently terrorized him into fearing inanimate objects. And why pick on Arab terrorists? What about those American terrorists who blasted people with their Garands?

So why endanger our Second Amendment rights by manufacturing and defending a modern hunting rifle that has such an inflammatory design? It plays right into the hands of the anti-gun movement. They love the looks of the AR-15. It’s easy to enrage the average American against such an “assault rifle.”

Because the Second Amendment is a right, not a privilege. There is no obligation to appease those who would deny you any portion of that right. Just as we do not kowtow to the insecurities of racist bigots to avoid endangering our Fourteenth Amendment rights, neither should we kowtow to the antigun bigots to avoid endangering our Second Amendment rights.

And here is a picture, just for you Jim Darnell:

Looks like it's time to give up your inflammatory looking terrorist deer rifle.