It occurred to me that if Second Amendment zealots applied their constitutional logic to the First Amendment, they would be demanding that folks be allowed to yell, “Fire!” in a crowded theater, no matter how many people would get hurt in the stampede.

“By God!” the zealots would say, “If we can’t yell what we want when we want, what’s next? Joe Biden telling us we can’t call turkeys in the fall?“

By now most of you have heard about the Tennessee man (who happens to be a CEO of a company that trains people “to prevail in a violent confrontation“) who said he would fire the first shot in a civil war over unfettered gun rights. Here is his contribution to American civilization—WARNING: He uses the F word:

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There he is, James Yeager, in all his tattooed, guns-over-country glory.  This is what we are up against, my friends. And we’re also up against the following, which is a rather frightening anecdote submitted by a good guy, Michael Barrows, on my “Holy Second Amendment Remedies” post:

I would like to share my recent encounter with the Second Amendment. I apologize for the length.

Keep in mind that I reside in Kansas, a state that has decided that smoking in certain public venue presents more danger to the occupants than concealing a firearm in that same venue would. On the weekend before Christmas, a friend and I decided to visit a local bar and catch-up with some old friends. Towards the end of the evening, the conversation, as many of late have, turned to gun control and the government. One of the people in the conversation told all of us at the table that “we wouldn’t have to worry about anything happening to us, he has his concealed carry license.” Shortly after that statement, and much to my surprise, his gun ended up in my lap. I believe my remark was “nice gun, here ya go” and quickly returned his firearm, about the same time he tells me that it doesn’t have a safety, “ya know, for quicker response time.”

Thankfully, he and the group that was with him, decided to leave shortly after that. But once they reached the sidewalk a distinctive ‘pop, pop’ sound could be heard from inside the bar. I went outside to see the group heading to another bar, with gun owner lowering the gun from the above him, after shooting it in the air.

Later that evening he fired two more shots into the air, outside of another bar, and was arrested.

Is this the type of person who is supposed to protect me from the government?

Yes, Michael, he and James Yeager will protect you from the government for about, oh, ten minutes on a good day. So, you’d better have some backup.