Bundy Ranch Shows Why Founding Fathers Created Second Amendment

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The Second Amendment does not exist so we can go hunting.  It exists as a check on Federal power.  The Bundy Ranch standoff is but the latest example as to why the Founding Fathers codified this Right to bear arms.

The Bundy Ranch standoff with the Federal Government was the result of a long simmering dispute between a family, state’s rights, and the reach of the Federal Government.  The land in Nevada has been in the Bundy family since before the creation of the Bureau of Land Management.

The source of the dispute began when a turtle was declared endangered and the Federal Government declared vast swaths of Nevada land “off limits” to cattle.  The Bundy family accused the Government of using the turtle as an excuse to “reclaim” hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Bundy thumbed his nose at the Government and let his cattle graze on the land, anyway.  He never paid any of the fines.  And a movement began for states to claim this land as their own.

87% of the land in Nevada is owned by the Federal Government.

The Republican governor of Nevada even tried to have his state’s director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife forced out, claiming that his priorities were misplaced.

When Bundy was ordered to remove his cattle and didn’t, that’s when the standoff began.

When Bundy refused to back down, pent up anger and frustration drove many supporters to stream into the area.  Many of these Bundy supporters were armed.  The Federal officials were armed.

The Government backed down.

Had protesters been unarmed or allowed only small caliber pistols as is the case in some countries, there would be no check on Federal power.  While the Feds would have won a shooting war, they would have taken a bloody nose and hundreds would have been killed.

When the Government fears its people, Freedom exists.  When the people fear their Government, tyranny exists.

I don’t own a gun because I want to go hunting.  I own one for my own self preservation.

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