The first clause gives the reasoning, it doesn’t establish a limitation.
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“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.”
“Unequivocal”?
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
A Militia is required for the security of the State. In order for there to be a Militia, you need the PEOPLE to be armed. The Militia back then was every able bodied male of fighting age.
Every right in the Bill of Rights was meant FOR THE PEOPLE.
I too believe this to be unequivocal, but you and people like you have proved me wrong.
…are there any other uses of “the people” that don’t mean “you & me”?
I don’t know what you’re asking.
I live in Texas (Austin). I saw a cottonmouth once from 100 feet. I didn’t have a gun. I survived. Spotted rattlers while unarmed, also survived. I actively go out looking for wildlife to id/shoot with my camera, never carry a gun, has never been a problem. Dangerous animals you’d need to shoot with a gun are very rare, and lugging a gun with you would put you at more risk than the dangerous critters a gun might be a defense against. It’s a good idea to learn to id snakes, but there are much better ways to deal with snakes than shooting them. if you could shoot fire ants to get rid of them I’d totally get a gun, though.
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You need some kind of microwave beam rifle for ants. Or a flamethrower I suppose.
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Did you find those things where you LIVED or visited.
Walking in an area that I am visiting I leave wild life alone.
If I was on my property and saw a venomous snake, sorry, I am going to probably take it out because I live there and while I saw it first this time, I may not next time - or it might be my kid or a pet who finds it next time. People on farms have even more to worry about with live stock and coyote and other predators.
The cottonmouth was in the green belt around the corner from the house by a creek, the rattlers were out In the sticks. There’s no creeks/water in my yard so there’s no chance of a cottonmouth showing up, but if I spotted a rattler or other dangerous snake in my yard I’d call animal control since I’d want it to be caught/released. No reason to kill it.
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I am going to leave my opinions about firearms out of this, and just mention wildlife.
The house I lived in while in Arizona had wild pigs (200lbs+ each), bobcats, rattlesnakes, scorpions, coyotes, etc. All of them ended up in my yard. The largest pack of wild pigs I encountered had 11 adults–I ran into them while walking the dog. One of the scariest things I’ve ever encountered, but we both kept quiet and walked away.
In Fountain Hills we had so many bobcats i could take photos of them from my kitchen. Such as this.
The pigs always ate my roses, and the bobcats took many cats. But in all the time I was there I never, ever, ever heard a gunshot. And this is a decent sized city right next to Scottsdale.
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I live in a National Park that is filled with wild life. They eat my landscape, they toss my trash cans around like toys.
I do not need to kill them.
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That’s quite the false equivalence there as well - but I take your point. The average Joe/Jane in Tx with a CCW can achieve such with - I’m pretty sure - all online training. I know the concealed part can be taken online there and I know the initial purchase doesn’t require any training.
Your assumption is incorrect. You can apply for the permit online, but the prerequisite training is in person by a licensed instructor and includes proficiency demonstration at a gun range.
Here’s a summary of how concealed and open carry work. http://txdps.state.tx.us/RSD/CHL/Legal/newlegislation.htm
YEP!! If ya don’t harass them, they don’t harass you.
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Venous snakes and maybe scorpions are the only thing I would kill around where I live. Bobcats I’d leave alone. Wild pig I would only do if I decided to get a license and hunt one. For the most part I leave nature alone, especially if it is out in nature. I never hurt non-venomous snakes. I encourage them. (Lots of bull snakes around here.)
If I had a farm and a bob cat eating chickens and wild pigs tearing up crops, I would take them down (unless the loss was minimal). But one has to protect your livelihood, which is different then them rooting up some ornamental shrubs.
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If you’ve got feral pigs around that you had some legitimate reason to kill, you’d be better off with some claymore mines than a gun. If you shoot one you’ll just provoke it to attack you and then you will die. Those things are terrifying.
Also, OMG, bobcats in your yard - that’s so cool! I was in Scottsdale over Thanksgiving and found burrowing owls:
and also a glided flicker nesting in a saguaro:
Scottsdale’s wildlife is amazing.
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I used to see (and hear) flickers where I live (near DC) but it has been several years.
Every once in a blue moon I’ll see a pileated woodpecker. It seems like they really have to be flushed out, e.g. a snowstorm influences to come to the feeder instead of foraging around.
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I’ve seen a cottonmouth from two feet away. I smacked it with a paddle and it stopped trying to get in the canoe and swam away. I’ve been within eight feet of timber rattlers and killed a few copperheads with a hoe, and when I was a child my grandfather showed me a snake pit (yes, they exist. Don’t fall in.)
None of that is really entirely on topic. Just wanted to you to know I understand your point.
I am not defending open carry in this thread, or at least not intending to.
The question was asked “What sort of hellhole is Texas that they are so worried their lives are on the line […] if they are not carrying a gun?”
Many people that read this blog have never been to Texas and cannot be expected to know much about it. So I answered “Perhaps it’s a place with dangerous wildlife” and linked a Google search that should (hopefully) show people some wildlife they’d consider dangerous.
Texas does have dangerous wildlife, and some people fear that wildlife just as some other people fear guns. I am lucky enough to have neither of these fears, myself. If I did, I would consider myself brave if I conquered or controlled that fear, and a coward if I let that fear control me or rule my life. But since I am unafraid, I cannot be either brave or cowardly; it’s no big deal to me. I think that most Americans used to have my attitude, and it seems to me that you do too. But the culture is changing and living in fear seem more popular than it used to be.
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Northern flickers show up in Austin in Winter but you really have to spend time birding to spot them, no gilded flickers here, was super happy to spot one in AZ. I’ve seen pileated woodpeckers but only from long distances, they’re really skittish. I wish I could get closer, they’re amazing.
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I doubt many peeps here disagree with that position.
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Oh hell yes. If I had wanted to take out that pack I encountered, I would have needed something like the gun from the last episode of breaking bad.
sigh I used to live in a house with a saguaro that had a flicker of some sort, and there was a Parliament of great horned owls a half mile away.
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