Why we have a second amendment

[Atypical Liberal]

19. Walking around armed in public is just a happy side-effect of the second amendment.

The second amendment provides insight into only one reason why the founders wanted an armed citizenry. The main reason.

But it does not preclude other reasons for keeping and bearing arms.

It is like when I say, "I am out of bread. I am going to the store."

This does not mean that stores only sell bread, or that to buy bread is the only reason I might go to a store.

It would be pretty absurd to think that, for example, citizens were not assumed to also be using their firearms for hunting. It would be pretty absurd to think that a person entrusted with keeping military-grade weapons and ammunition in his home for the defense of the state could not be trusted with using them to defend himself, his home, and his family with them.

Carrying in public is a little different, but then it is also treated a little different - in most places you have to have a license from the state to do it.

Of course, some states are figuring out that it's hardly worth the effort to issue licenses, since the people who apply for them are hardly ever involved in crime, but that's another subject.