I am the face of the Second Amendment

Many media types seek to paint firearms owners with a broad brush. Painting them as either a hunter who only owns a hunting rifle or shotgun, or as an individual who is a barely restrained homicidal lunatic waiting to snap their leash and explode upon the innocent populace. They have an agenda, a narrative, which reality doesn't fit.

I am the face of the Second Amendment. I am a father, a minister, a former soldier, former Volunteer Auxiliary Police Officer, a former Security Officer, a former Emergency Medical Technician, a former Volunteer Firefighter, a former Real Estate Agent, a former gas station assistant manager, a former auto maintenance shop assistant manager. I am many things. The roles I take most seriously are Father and Minister.

I own firearms. Not for hunting although I have used them for such. Not for self defense, although I have used them for such. Not for target shooting, although I have used them for such. Not for offensive, although I have used them for such when I worked in Law Enforcement. A firearm is many things, and few things. It is an inanimate object which requires my will to function. It has no free will, it has no muscles. It can not intimidate or threaten without my action upon it. It is a hunk of machined parts, of metal, plastic, rubber and other things. Brought together in a form which allows me to do many things with it. I can shoot targets with it. I can hunt with it. I can defend myself and my family with it. I can defend others with it. I can use it to project force if necessary, or to project imminent threat if necessary.

But it is still just a hunk of parts. It requires my will, my actions, my intent to do anything other than sit on the shelf in the safe. I have to make a conscious decision to take it out, to load it, chamber a round and fire it. Until that time it is just a gathering of parts, with no will of it's own.

I own firearms because I enjoy shooting. I enjoy taking my kids out shooting. The same way I enjoy taking my kids out fishing, or camping. I also own firearms because they someday might be needed to project that inherent force to protect my children, others or even myself. In 10 years of working in the law enforcement field, I am quite proud of the fact that I have never had to discharge my weapon at another human being. I did have to draw that weapon many times over that 10 years. Several times at a subject, other times in preparation for an entry into an unknown situation. But I never had to fire it at another human being. I did have to use it to put down a dog which had been almost cut in half by a train. I've had to put down one of my own dogs, miles from the truck and several dozens of miles from the vet. I'm not proud of that fact, and wish there had been another way, but I could not and cannot allow one of God's creatures to suffer that way. Some would say that if it had been a human I wouldn't have done it. And they are right. I wouldn't have done that to a human being. A human being is many orders away from from an dog or a wild animal, but some would equate that dog or wild animal with a human. They are not the same. Because I think that way, I am labeled as a monster a thing. And yet these same people labeling me, throw platitudes about a convicted cop killer, they think that the terrorists would just leave us alone if our country was more understanding, if we would see things from their point of view. I do see things from their point of view, they want to subjugate me and my family and I will not not roll over and play dead for them. I will stand up to them and spit in their eye, and do anything in my power to destroy them if they ever try to hurt my family or my country.

Because I will not sit idly by while the socialists and liberals attempt to take our Constitution and trash it and the freedoms it affirms, I am a racist, a neanderthal, a war-monger.

No I am a Man, a Father, A Minster, and many years ago I took an oath to defend our Constitution no matter the cost to myself. This I shall do and to paraphrase Gandalf the Grey, They Shall Not Pass.

Mark