United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Those who serve in the military are willing to sacrifice a lot. This includes time with their family, the chance to make much more money in the private sector, and even their lives to protect this country. Their families also make great sacrifices as well.
Some of these sacrifices are necessary, but others can be mitigated or eliminated. One of the sacrifices that should be mitigated is the Second Amendment rights of servicemembers’ spouses. The fact is, current laws leave spouses of military members unable to fully exercise their Second Amendment rights, a situation that is unacceptable on multiple levels.
First, there is the simple fact that spouses can’t exactly be left behind on the vast majority of military life. They also have to move with the service members – along with their children. When the service member deploys, the spouse left behind often now has to handle both parents’ roles. This includes serving as a protector.
If there is a group of people out there who greatly need less hindrance in exercising their Second Amendment rights, military spouses are it. They not only live with the same sort of threats most families want to protect themselves from (crime, not having enough food to feed families, etc.), the fact that they are the family of service members can make them targets for terrorists.
Second Amendment supporters have the chance to not only mitigate one of the sacrifices that military spouses make, but they can also actually help make them safer. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), a champion of our Second Amendment rights, has introduced S 3493, the Protect Our Military Families’ 2nd Amendment Rights Act.
What this legislation does is to not only include military spouses with the members of the military in being considered residents of the state the military member is assigned to, it also declares that they are residents of the state where they may rent. For instance, a servicemember’s family assigned to Andrews Air Force Base in Maine may actually live in Virginia. There are other military bases that either cross or are close to state lines (like Fort Campbell, where the 101st Air Assault Division is based).
The fact is, passing this bill would be only a small step in restoring the Second Amendment, but this is the sort of small step that can make anti-Second Amendment extremists look very bad. We could make them seem insensitive to the needs of military families.
Second Amendment supporters should take the time to contact their Senators and Representative and politely urge them to support S 3493. Sometimes, the small steps taken today can lead to bigger gains down the road.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
So enough ppl have corrected you on Andrews being located in Maryland so I’ll pass on that. It’s bad enough that our Service men & women are sitting ducks on bases that refuse to allow them to be armed to defend themselves against wack jobs who would assault them, their spouses are also victims of this insane policy. Truth is, our political leadership in both parties don’t trust the military to be armed for fear of insurrection against their tyranny. Remember, they want all of us to be disarmed so they are free to work their mischief using police, many… Read more »
Unfortunately, the military has always been somewhat unfriendly to personally owned firearms. Many of us carried our personal firearms in our flight vests in combat, but were supposed to carry govt issued .38’s (later 9mms) and could get in trouble for having our own firearms. I carried a Browning Hi Power for many years (before the plastic guns of today). When I was single, a married guy could have his guns on base in housing, but I couldn’t have mine at the bachelor officers quarters. I also couldn’t have them in my car (still can’t). So effectively, they disarmed me.… Read more »
“Andrews Air Force Base in Maine”
It is Joint Base Andrews and it’a in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
“A small step in RESTORING the Second Amendment”?
We haven’t given, nor will we give it up the first time!
Don’t forget some military families home of record might be a gun friendly state such as Texas (where they have a concealed carry license) OR another state that has open carry but the military sends the service member to a very gun unfriendly state such as Maryland or New York has severe anti-gun laws that don’t allow the service member or their spouses to have the same protections they would have in their home state.
This is another sacrifice the military forces upon the service member and their families.
“Andrews Air Force Base in Maine” I think it’s called Joint Base Andrews now and it is in DC.
Okay, but what does it do? Can someone explain?