Are Your Hunting Guns At Risk Of Being Confiscated?

I hear time and again by hunters that they aren’t afraid of the government banning hunting or taking away their gun rights. “Do you mean to tell me that the current gun ban and gun control legislation being proposed will end up with the government coming to get my hunting guns locked in my gun safe?”, they ask.

I understand that it’s a hard thing to fathom—the government putting an end to gun hunting rights. For those who use their guns only to hunt and always have, it seems like a paranoid stretch to think that their gun rights will ever be taken away. The anti-gun lobby likes to point this out by making a mockery of such comments by those warning the hunters.

No one knows the future of the drastic gun control measures being tossed about in the current climate after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. But, they say that history repeats itself, so let’s look at what history has shown in other countries with the same types of gun restrictions currently being proposed in the United States.

The individual actions and statements by politicians are never purely for their dressed-up purposes used to sell an idea to the public. After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, the current administration started the attack on gun-owners rights subtly, with the President saying, “…any actions should begin inside the home, and inside our hearts.” This statement is hard to argue with since one of the biggest reasons for criminal action is the upbringing of the criminal. Without a question our homes and upbringing have the most to do with how we turn out—and how many criminals are churned out.

Those in the current administration said in the days after the Newtown Connecticut shooting that, “…all options for curtailing this type of violence will be looked into, including mental health issues, sensible gun restrictions, and any other ways to save lives.”

Within a week all talks by the government quickly turned to gun control alone, leaving all of the other “options” off the table. Their true intentions are now hard to ignore.

In my previous articles you’ve already seen the current restrictions to your Second Amendment rights that have been proposed. What we will look at here is how the current climate of gun control pertains specifically to hunting, and the possible erosion of hunting rights in the U.S.

Governments know it would be an overwhelming hurdle to outright ban guns from law-abiding citizens. And even though many politicians have indicated they are in favor of that exact measure based on previous legislation they have supported or signed into law, they are smart enough to keep their true intentions concealed due to overwhelming opposition should the truth come out.

The only real method available for politicians to curtail law-abiding gun ownership then, is to split all gun categories and target them one at a time. Usually the first one targeted is a type of gun or ammunition recently involved in a high profile crime—one that has the public clamoring to make a “quick” fix to the problem—one that will be easily supported.

Right now in the United States that God-send of a high-profile crime for the anti-gun lobby is the one that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut with an AR style sporting rifle (also called an “assault weapon” by the anti-gun lobby), and a couple handguns with magazines larger than ten rounds.

The language used by the government and the government-friendly media, portrays these items to be as sinister as possible using the terms “assault weapons” (arbitrarily made up to confuse the uninformed they are somehow similar to military rifles) and “high capacity” magazines even though “high capacity” is also a subjective term and in this case means capable of holding 11 rounds or more. A great example of the truth compared to what you’re being sold by the media can be found here. http://thegunwire.com/blog/youtube-video-bigshooterist-assault-weapon-bans-explained/

In the case of the United States we have a thing called the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that the banning of the proposed items would arguably violate. This current attack is now starting the slow erosion of the right of all people to keep and bear arms—all arms—including hunting rifles. (We’ll get to that)

In any case, as soon as one category of guns, ammunition, or accessories is banned, the removal of arms continues in a systematic erosion of subsequent categories. Perhaps it goes next to semi-automatic arms, then rifles over a certain amount of power, then handguns over a certain caliber size, etc. This is the divide-and-conquer strategy where the hope of the anti-gun activists is that no one segment of the gun-owning public will be strong enough to defeat the general public (and even some gun owners) who are against or indifferent to that particular, currently-targeted category.

Typically the hunting guns are the last lot targeted because the general public tends to believe that hunting is a noble and good sport and pastime, deeply rooted in our country’s heritage. This sentiment is evident when even the staunchest anti-gunners I have talked with tend to end their statements against guns with, “…but I don’t have a problem with hunting rifles.”

Those who are hunters-only, in their complacency and belief they will never be targeted, often denounce the use of the AR style sporting rifles and magazines holding 11 rounds—currently the targeted categories. What they don’t realize is that when hunters are the last group of gun owners left to target, the removal of their arms will be one of the easiest to do because all of the other gun owners no longer care about the hunters who have spoken out against the other categories. In other words, there will be no on left to fight for the hunters if the hunters don’t fight for the others.

The irony to all of this in the United States is that the Second Amendment was not created for the protection of hunting, nor does it have anything to do with hunting. http://www.randyganther.com/component/content/article/94-original-meaning-of-the-second-amendment-to-the-us-constitution.html

This means that there will be no legal means of defending the hunting rifle, or hunting rights, leaving it easy to dismantle the final, yet previously thought untouchable class of gun owners—the hunters.

I don’t hunt. I don’t use 50 round, 100 round, or 30 round magazines. But I do believe, based on statistics and facts and not emotional rhetoric, that there is nothing about eliminating these objects that will reduce the crimes that are currently being blamed on them. You can see here why even 7-round magazines will have no deterrent effect on school or mass shootings. http://www.randyganther.com/component/content/article/90-why-proposed-new-gun-legislation-will-not-stop-mass-shootings.html

Gun owners need to stick together without falling into the well-executed trap of the anti-gun advocates. With every category of gun eliminated, you are one category closer to the government showing up at your doorstep, and asking for the key to your gun cabinet.

We wrap this series up in the next article as we take a look into the future of what our country will be like should law abiding citizens of the United States ever be stripped of their Second Amendment rights.