United States – -(AmmoLand.com)-Â 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.
Yeah, this is a topic, the military and firearms, which could be discussed till Kingdom come and very little will change. When I was in Germany ’73-’76 I was the Lead Custodial Agent and also a member of our Alert Force as secondary duties. On any given day I could go down to the Armory and draw my issued M-16 and 120 rounds of ammo without any permission slip or list for the day. And I wasn’t peculiar in this respect. Others could do the same thing. Many days my rifle, ammo, and webbing spent the day piled on the… Read more »