Yeah, I know, Byron, many times in my life I have had to defend the 2nd amendment, in some cases with every means available to me short of gunfire.

What stuck in my craw regarding this thread is the implication that the patriots among us who would, if necessary, invoke our 2nd amendment right based on the primary purpose for which it was written are "gangs of crackpots playing cowboys and Indianns in the woods."

This implication came from a lib prog who says he's a gun owner and a supporter of the 2nd amendment. The fool sat there and parroted one of the left's erroneous interpretations of the 2nd amendment--a highly prejudicial and remarkably ill-conceived view of the 2nd amendment, a view that seems to ignore its real history and purposely denies its original intent.

The fact is that the primary purpose of the 2nd amendment scares the living crap out of leftists, especially the pathological pukes that infest our state houses and our national capitol. They cannot abide its true purpose, so they have wasted enormous amounts of time, energy, and money interpreting the amendment so that it puts ALL guns in the hands of a government entity, be it a national guard, the cops, or the military. The idea that all across the nation there are ""gangs of crackpots playing cowboys and Indianns in the woods," terrifies those bent on despotism.

In my estimation, this angry, hateful leftist fop could be the poster boy for the law that prohibits mentally challenged people from owning guns.

It doesn't in the 2nd but is covered elsewhere:

As spelled out in Chapter 44 of Title 18 of the United States Code (U.S.C.), federal law bans convicted felons from possessing firearms or ammunition. (The U.S.C. is a compilation of congressional laws organized by topic and subtopic: Title 18 defines federal crimes and criminal procedure, and Chapter 44 (Sections 921-931) covers firearms.)

According to Section 922(g)(9), no one "who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" may own or possess a gun. This rule covers all felonies, but does not apply to state misdemeanors that carry less than a two-year sentence. It also exempts several kinds of felonious white-collar crime, as well as felony convictions handed down in foreign countries [sources: 18 U.S.C. § 921; 544 U.S. 385; Williams].

Lest you think Section 922(g) is too lenient, however, read on: It also bans guns for (among others) fugitives, illegal users of controlled substances, mental defectives, illegal aliens, dishonorably discharged soldiers, renounced citizens, subjects of certain court orders and persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence. Violating these statutes can net you 10 years of imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine [source: Rhode Island Probation].

As for persons convicted of a federal crime, they can always apply to the president for a pardon [sources: 28 C.F.R. § 1; DOJ].

LOL ... good luck with that.