>>>Jake,
>>>
>>>>Not a day goes by without one of these stories.
>>>>http://wtaq.com/news/articles/2012/dec/06/concealed-carry-helps-appleton-man-during-road-rage-incident/
>>>
>>>what I don't get is why concealed is emphasized in that article.
>>>My guess is that open carry would have stopped the situation just as well.
>>>
>>>I also realize that a random factor of cconcealed carry might put a damper on situations
>>>just as much as having less accurate weapons in the west in the heydays of gunslinging.
>>>
>>>Asking for personal take:
>>>a) Do you think the right to carry is more important (perhaps with stipulations of open carry)
>>>or does it have to be "hands off" for most gov rules, allowing concealed carry ?
>>>
>>>b) legal issues aside, what would you personally prefer to see in the states ?
>>>
>>>regards
>>>
>>>thomas
>>
>>Frankly, what I think on the specifics is irrelevant. What's important is the right itself. Weakening and watering-down one part of the Constitution weakens the whole of the Constitution. For the same reason that I disagree with "reasonable" restrictions on the 1st amendment, I disagree with them on all amendments. There is a way established to alter the Constitution, it has been done before and can be again.
>
>The 2nd amendment right is not what you assert it is. If you actually read and understand the damned thing you will see that the intention was to assure a citizen militia. Guns were kept in armories until the citizen militia needed to be called up against an invading force. We have had a standing army since 1850. It didn't say anything at all about everyone going around armed all the time.
>
>I am through arguing this with you. It's pointless. You are as dug in as the NRA itself.

Educate yourself. Read.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt2_user.html#amdt2_hd2
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/12/jeffrey-toobin-second-amendment.html
and your favorite source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29scotus.html?_r=0

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court embraced the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment. While the government cannot ban handguns, it can ban other weapons.