Guns & Hunting

Deer hunting season here in Wisconsin has begun.   Some people do not like deer hunting.  I am not much of a hunter myself, although I used to enjoy bird hunting.  I understand that hunting is an essential part of deer conservation in order to control the deer population so they do not die of starvation and disease.  Hunting also stimulates tourism and the economy.

This post is more about guns and gun owners than it is about deer hunting.  The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads:

“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.”

        The founding fathers knew the vulnerability of an unarmed public.  They had studied history and in many cases experienced the problem first hand.  They knew any dictator or totalitarian government must first register and then confiscate privately owned guns.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking it can’t happen here.  People throughout history have made that mistake. 

        Isoroku Yamamoto was the Commander-In-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he is reported to have said;  “You cannot invade the mainland United States.  There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”

        Abraham Lincoln said; “America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

        Nikita Khrushchev knew the armed citizens of the United States could never be conquered with guns so he proposed another strategy.  He said:

“You Americans are so gullible.  No, you won’t accept Communism outright; but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you finally wake up and find that you already have Communism.  We won’t have to fight you; we’ll so weaken your economy, until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands.”

        Why are foreign powers so afraid of our armed citizens?  Let’s take a look at the numbers.  There are over 600,000 hunters in Wisconsin alone.   That number would be the eighth largest army in the world.  If we combine Wisconsin with 750,000 hunters in Pennsylvania, 700,000 in Michigan, and 250,000 in West Virginia, we have 2.4 million armed hunters.  That is equal to the largest army in the world. 

True these hunters are not trained military, but they may well be better marksmen.  When I was a kid on the farm doing chores, I would kill a rat with a single-shot 22 almost every night.  I only got one shot.  I actually could hit what I shot at.  Military personnel with that that ability are classified as expert marksmen.  When I was in basic training, I observed that guys raised around guns were always the best marksmen. 

I have only been talking about hunters.  Now think about the millions of gun owners that are not hunters, but are proficient with firearms.  No foreign power would consider invading with an army of two million when they might be facing 40 or 50 million armed citizens.  Gun ownership in this country is an important part of how we won and have kept our freedom, and is our greatest security.  If we lose our freedom, it will not be from invasion by a foreign power.  It will be from within as both Lincoln and Khrushchev predicted.