I write this on October 8, 2008, the day after the second presidential debate. By the time this magazine arrives in your postbox, the election will be just days away, or it has already concluded. I admit I’m in a grim mood, because I believe I have seen the future, and the future has shown me that Barack Hussein
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Obama will become the 44th president of the United States. This is not an outcome I desire, and I’m sure a fair number of Gun Tests readers will vote for Obama. But what I saw last night in the debate depressed me, because I don’t think John Sidney McCain III will win.
I believe McCain is a great man, and I have the utmost respect for his accomplishments. But, it seems to me, he hasn’t been willing to do what it takes to win. He may simply be too good a person to play by Chicago rules. Though the McCain/Palin ticket will get all the votes in my household, my 18-year-old son, my wife, and I all see the same thing: McCain just isn’t that strong a candidate for conservatives. My wife and son will vote for McCain for reasons in addition to the 2nd Amendment—they factor in the economy, national defense, and other topics—while I simply look at how my gun rights will be protected, or not protected.
Mine is a binary universe, where dark is Off and light is On, and On is determined solely by how a candidate will treat gun ownership.
A candidate is either with me or ag’in me on Heller, the right to carry, the right to self-defense—in sum, whether a candidate trusts an individual citizen to act responsibly. If a candidate doesn’t trust me with life-and-death decisions when my own hide is at stake, why should I trust him?
As a result, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many gun pundits and the gun marketplace, the Obama outcome will be very bad for the 2nd Amendment.
This personal disclosure shouldn’t surprise any Gun Tests reader, and I won’t be surprised to hear from many of you that you agree, and likewise voted for McCain. Though the senator from Arizona isn’t where I’d like him to be on gun issues—I want him closer to the 2nd Amendment positions of the governor of Alaska, if you want to know the truth—Obama worries me, despite his protestations that he won’t “come take my guns.” I can’t vote for a guy who worries me on my number-one topic.
The gun-ownership question infuses many larger topics, and if you believe in your ability to protect yourself and your family, and you take on the responsibility to exercise lethal means to accomplish that task, then you probably don’t want to take all my money and give it to someone else, or have the country roll over when Putin comes calling. Of course, there are liberals who carry, and who put gun issues first, despite differences of opinion we might have over global warming and abortion and taxes.
I nonetheless welcome them into the Brotherhood of the Gun. I just hope there’s enough of us to prove me wrong on November 4. GT
