Just as the First Amendment applies to the modern printing press and the Internet, the Second Amendment applies to modern firearms. The most important aspect of the Second Amendment is the philosophy on which it is founded: that all free people have the right to defend themselves, their families, communities and nation. In 1789 it applied to the freedom to keep and bear arms just as it does today. The technological advances of the past two centuries do not make that principle obsolete; any more than computerized printing cancels the First Amendment.
The Second Amendment is about protecting the right of a free people to defend that freedom and to protect their families and communities from threats. The Founders, who all considered themselves English citizens, had seen the British army disarm the public. They believed this was an improper use of government power. In writing the Constitution, they included the Second Amendment to prohibit the American government from doing what the British had done.
Think About It
How often as a (CWP) Concealed Weapons Permit Holder have you walked up to a business to support them to see a sign in the window that has the picture of a handgun with a red circle and line through the center that says “NO CONCEALED WEAPONS ALLOWED”? How does that make you feel?
You are a law abiding citizen, you have taken the time to get trained in the use and handling of firearms and have gone through all the necessary background checks that allows you to become a Concealed Weapons Permit Holder. Then add on the fact that as a US Citizen you have a legal right to carry a firearm, this given to you by the Second Amendment.
You now have a choice to make. Go ahead into the business and take a chance no one will know, walk back to your car, take off your concealed weapon and leave it, taking a chance someone could break into your vehicle and steal it, or simply walk back to your vehicle and make a choice to spend your money with someone who understands the importance of and supports the freedoms we have that so many have died to protect.
The founders of SO2A, which is short for “SUPPORT OUR SECOND AMENDMENT” choose to do the later of the above scenario. We do business with businesses that appreciate the freedoms that allowed them the opportunity they have to open a business in the first place.
On the other hand, if you are an uninformed citizen, that sign could make you have some sense of a false security. Please understand, a criminal pays NO attention to that sign. If anything it gives him or her a positive sense of security that if they want to enter that business to rob or do harm to someone inside, possibly you, they will truly have an unfair advantage.
Now, think about this, if the same criminal walks up to a business with an intent to rob it, harm someone inside, again, possibly you, and see a sign on the window of a handgun with a green circle and check mark in the center that reads CONCEALED WEAPON PERMIT “CWP” HOLDERS ARE WELCOME ON THESE PREMISES, what do you think the odds are that they would second guess going into the building and going through with their crime?
To some people, banning guns sounds like a perfect way to make the world safer. However, proponents of gun bans ignore two important facts. Criminals ignore gun bans and NO gun signs, and law-abiding people will be even more at risk with no effective means of self-defense.