Op-Ed: "Guns & Ammo" Supports Gun Control

by Robert Farago

Click here to download a pdf of Guns & Ammo's column "Let's Talk Limits." Technical Editor Dick Metcalf penned the editorial for the December issue. Metcalf, a writer whose technical knowledge (or lack thereof) has earned him brickbats before, bases his editorial on a distinction between "infringement" and "regulation."

"I bring this up," Metcalf writes, "because way too many gun owners still believe that any regulation of the right to keep and bear arms is an infringement. The fact is that all Constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be." That, dear reader, is a major WTF moment. One of many...

Metcalf's dietribe [sic] turns to the antis' favorite justification for infringing on our natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms: you "Can't yell 'FIRE!' in a crowded theater." Yes. Yes you can. It's just that you're legally responsible for what happens next. And what happens next in Metcalf's editorial is bizarre—especially for an article that appears in a gun magazine:

Many argue that any regulation at all is, by definition, an infringement. If that were true, then the authors of the Second Amendment themselves, should not have specified "well-regulated."

You're kidding, right? Metcalf doesn't know that "well-regulated" is "referring to the property of something being in proper working order?" That it has nothing to do with government regulation? No way!

Way. Sure Metcalf's bone-headed, uninformed, patently obvious misinterpretation of the Second Amendment's introductory clause isn't as bad as the antis' assertion that the 2A only applies to Americans in a militia, but it's the next worst thing. Coming from a gun guy, a man who trumpets the fact that he co-wrote "The Firearm Owners Protection Act" and taught college seminars on Constitutional law, well, I'm speechless.

Too bad Metcalf isn't. Once again, he turns to the antis' well-worn fundamentally flawed pro-regulation arguments to advocate gun control. He deploys ye olde auto analogy to defend state-issued carry permits against readers who believe that Second Amendment is the only authority they need to bear arms.

I wondered whether those same people believed that just anybody should be able to buy a vehicle and take it out on public roadways without any kind of driver's training, test or license.

I understand that driving a car is not a right protected by the Constitution, but to me the basic principle is the same. I firmly believe that all U.S. citizens have the right to bear arms, but...

I'm going to stop there. Anyone who says "I believe in the Second Amendment but–" does not believe in the Second Amendment. They are not friends, they are not frenemies, they are enemies of The People of the Gun.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at TheTruthAboutGuns.com.