2nd Amendment TRUTH

Most Americans who plan to march on Washington Saturday against gun violence don't believe that private citizens should own high-capacity semi-automatic rifles. They don't understand what many gun rights defenders see as the heart of the Second Amendment: The defense against a tyrannical government.

In recent debates, gun rights activists have offered a number of defenses of what gun control advocates call assault weapons, from the rifles not being more deadly than other firearms to illegalization leaving them only in the hands of criminals. The tyranny argument is often overlooked by people who assume this argument is limited to people on the extreme, militia-end of the gun rights spectrum. But it's become common among gun owners and mainstream conservative figures.

Shannon Alford, the National Rifle Association's Maryland liaison, was among the scores of people who came to the state House of Delegates on March 6 to offer feedback on a number of gun-related pieces of legislation being considered after the Parkland shooting.

"The Second Amendment is not about hunting," Alford told USA TODAY. "It is not about competitive shooting. The Second Amendment is about self-defense. It's about being able to stop people who would do you harm, whether that's a criminal or the government."

'A 30-round magazine might be too small'

That NRA position has been repeated almost word for word by several well-known conservative figures in recent years.

"The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a fundraising letter for his 2016 presidential campaign. "It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty."

Conservative blogger Erick Erickson said the Second Amendment, "contrary to much of today’s conversation, has just as much to do with the people protecting themselves from tyranny as it does burglars." And Erickson believes that is the main reason gun control advocates don't understand the need for high-capacity semi-automatic firearms.

> That is why there is so little common ground about assault rifles — even charitably ignoring the fact that there really is no such thing. If the 2nd Amendment is to protect the citizenry from even their own government, then the citizenry should be able to be armed ...
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> You may think a 30 round magazine is too big. Under the real purpose of the second amendment, a 30 round magazine might be too small.
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USA Today
March 22