Originally Posted by
scaggly
Privilege as far as I can recall, dates back a very long way and originally meant a 'private law', where particular groups had the rules/laws set up so they had special dispensation to do particular things. Normal people of course, couldn't do those things. Rights belong to everyone (although that seems to be chipped at every year), privilege is for a few (e.g. parliamentary privilege where the laws of slander or libel do not apply).
The way our gun laws work, everyone is given a license unless they are disqualified (we limit other rights based on similar lines too, you can't vote if you're in prison for example, and freedom of expression or association also have limits put on them). We don't have to prove we're fit and proper, the police have to prove we aren't to prevent us getting a license. That is an example of a right.
If it was a privilege, rather than a right, we would have a system where the onus was on each of us to individually prove our fitness to own firearms, rather than the state proving otherwise, and only a rich/powerful elite, or chosen few would be able to own guns (like a whole bunch of countries we can name all to readily).
Thankfully we're not that stuffed yet, but that is what the anti's want when they try to label firearms ownership as a 'privilege' and we play into their hands when we buy into the mealy-mouthed, mean-spirited view of things, and by playing into their hands we increase the chances that our kids will never know the things we all take for granted.
I really hope we don't give in to the anti's, gun ownership is a right under our legal system, and we should all stand up for it, as we would for any other right (suffrage, free speech, freedom of association, private property etc.). Frankly, when we as shooters buy into the whole idea that shooting is a privilege, we've pretty much lost. It isn't something that should be restricted to the few, shooting & hunting are a key part of our national identity, our heritage, and something that must be preserved for our kids.
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