US And The Right To Bear Arms Movement Growing

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The number of shootings in the schools and streets of America has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands to assert their Second Amendment rights. The movement to bear arms publicly at all times is significant and growing.

Some even see their semi-automatics as a last line of defense against the government.

Craig Rutherford, member of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, spent years carrying a gun in the Balkans and in Iraq as a defense contractor. So when he came home to Virginia, he did not see a reason to put it down.

“Being a former deputy sheriff, I felt it was necessary to obtain a concealed handgun permit to protect myself,” he says.

United States
United States

But Craig does not want to just conceal his gun. He wants to carry it out in the open.

“To me it’s the constitutional way to carry a firearm and I think if you don’t exercise your rights you will lose them,” explains Craig.

His wife Jadranka will not leave the house without her .357 Magnum tucked into a special handbag for “packing heat”.

“In Croatia I was not thinking about taking [a]pistol with me, even during the war,” says Jadranka Rutherford.

She believes the lifestyle in the US is quite different from that of her homeland.

“When I came here, I said, ‘Oh, it is like the Wild West, like I was watching on TV.’ And now I’m walking with a gun on my hip,” she says.

There are 258 million guns in the hands of American civilians and Rutherford estimates he has spent more than $25,000 on his collection.

“It’s never complete, I mean, how many pairs of shoes do you have? I see guns that I would like to get everyday,” claims Craig.

And each one brings back memories.

“There’s one that’s very dear to my heart and it’s right back here. This was my grandfather’s shotgun and we used to go hunting together when I was a little boy.”

Rutherford carries his gun everywhere he legally can and encourages his daughters and nephew to do the same.

And he is not alone.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League counts 2,500 members. They organize public events like one in which they openly carry loaded weapons at parks, restaurants and other public spaces in an effort to normalize it.

They have opposed every piece of gun control legislation, and their critics say they make the National Rifle Association, America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights, look moderate.

“I believe that you should be able to carry a firearm in any manner you choose on an airplane,” says Travis Fox, gun owner.

Schools should also be on the list, believe Virginian gun owners.

“Virginia Tech [The Virginia Tech massacre, April 16, 2007; 32 people killed], Columbine [The Columbine High School massacre, April 20, 1999; 12 people killed], those are serious things. If they don’t allow guns it’s always the criminal that gets the gun, as you can’t have a gun in a gun-free zone. Guns need to be allowed on campuses,” says Joseph Ramsey, gun owner.

The Virginia Citizens Defense league is part of the greater Open Carry movement, a well-organized network of gun owners in 43 states.

“It builds camaraderie between everyone and it makes it easier to spread the message of open carry,” believes Justin Boyd, gun owner.

For some in the Open Carry movement, it is about more than security. It is about forming a militia, defending themselves from government tyranny and even organizing an insurgency.

RT

RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual news network that is funded by the Russian government and has been labelled as a propaganda outlet by the US State Department.

5 thoughts on “US And The Right To Bear Arms Movement Growing

  • May 9, 2011 at 4:09 am
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    “The number of shootings in the schools and streets of America has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands to assert their Second Amendment rights.”

    If anything it would do the opposite: Remind us of how far we have fallen away from our good principles, the RKABA being a major part of them.

    “Some even see their semi-automatics as a last line of defense against the government.”

    That is the entire issue. The “gun issue” or Gun-Control has never, never, never been about reducing crime or violence. It is the tool of predators to disarm their prey. Common street thugs prefer a disarmed society, and tyrannical governments must have control of who has the firearms. (See JPFO (http://jpfo.org/) if you’d like to see some interesting research on Gun-Control and Genocide).

    “They have opposed every piece of gun control legislation, and their critics say they make the National Rifle Association, America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights, look moderate.”

    NRA is not the grand stallion of gun-rights that the PC theater on TV makes them out to be. I’ve often thought that the best thing someone who is serious about gun rights can do is to tear up their NRA membership card. Join GOA or JPFO.

    Reply
  • May 9, 2011 at 2:57 pm
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    “The number of shootings in the schools and streets of America has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands to assert their Second Amendment rights. The movement to bear arms publicly at all times is significant and growing.”

    Seeing that the past couple of decades have seen both a dramatic loosening of Gun Control laws and a dramatic drop in violent crime, this opening paragraph is, at best, obtuse. High Profile incidents like Columbine do not represent a trend. Gun Rights types may be wrong in their belief that the decline in violent crime and the boom in gun ownership are connected, but falling numbers of shootings is not a reason to panic over the presence of guns in a society.

    There is an argument for Gun Control laws, but this article not only didn’t make it, it undermined it seriously.

    Reply
  • May 21, 2011 at 5:54 am
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    I can’t even tell what the point of this article is other than to say that America still has guns. It seems to be trying to infer that guns are bad, but it does a poor job and just seems to state some random facts (well except for the “…and even organizing an insurgency” bit which is just completely out in left field) but doesn’t do anything with it. Though I will state a few facts on the subject of guns.

    England, Australia, and Canada have all enacted extremely tough gun laws in the past century. Every single one of these countries have seen INCREASES in their violent crime numbers, including gun crime. England started it’s “gun control” the longest ago, is on an island, but yet still has plenty of gun crime (and both crime and gun crime are higher than before the “gun control” started). These three countries are prime examples of how “gun control” doesn’t help lower crime and really only “control” the law abiding citizen. Criminals will still find a way to get guns and weapons (even on islands, so non-island countries/states can’t really blame their gun crime due to “lax” neighbors) to commit crimes with, and all that the “control” does is prevent the people from defending theirselves.

    Also note that you can’t directly compare one civilization to another and then state that X is the sole reason for the difference and thus banning/controlling X will make them more alike. If that was the case then the U.S. should be asking itself why it doesn’t have a crime rate on par with Switzerland as that country is among the highest guns per capita countries in the world but yet has an extremely low crime and gun crime rate.

    And to give a few U.S. examples of how “gun control” means MORE crime. Both Chicago and Washington D.C. saw spikes in their crime after gun bans were put in place. After the bans were ruled illegal the crime in these two places steadily dropped to pre-ban numbers. The only person who can defend you 100% of the time is you, not the government and as more people realize this and take steps to defend theirselves the better off the country will be.

    Reply
  • May 21, 2011 at 6:01 am
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    “The number of shootings in the schools and streets of America has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands to assert their Second Amendment rights.”
    :banghead:
    What is so hard to understand about this concept:
    The reason there are shootings in schools is because the criminals know they’re safe there.
    In places that allow people to carry in school, there aren’t shootings.
    Shootings on the streets are mostly done by criminals, to criminals.
    Once in a while they attack a citizen, & once in a while the intended victim is able to stop them.

    “For some in the Open Carry movement, it is about more than security. It is about forming a militia, defending themselves from government tyranny and even organizing an insurgency.”
    Wow… who have you been talking to? The Brady Bunch?
    I’ll go along with the defense part, as that’s the ultimate extension of the Second Amendment.
    But the militia is defined by law.
    And I don’t think there’d be much overlap between the average law-abiding open carrier & those looking to overthrow the government violently.

    Sure as heck not why I carry.
    I carry to be able to protect myself, same as I wear a seatbelt, have a first aid kit, & have smoke alarms. To come through an unlikely bad situation better.

    Reply
  • May 22, 2011 at 4:00 pm
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    Don’t forget that you will NEVER be able to prevent all tradegies. For example in the past several years there’s been multiple incidents of Chinese men going into places like playgrounds and schools and attacking KIDS with knives. But that doesn’t mean they should ban knives in China (not sure why the media doesn’t make a bigger issue with it like they do with guns, but you can find info on the web).

    Reply

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