Joe Huffman takes on a notion, promoted by the former Attorney General of Maryland, that handguns have no sporting use. This Sunday is our monthly IHMSA match, which I suppose doesn’t qualify as a sport in the mind of Joseph Curran.
One thought on “No Sporting Use”
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That’s a good analysis by Joe. Most of us obviously agree that handguns do have sporting usages or “purpose.” I like to shoot IDPA. Granted … Mr. Curran or those like him might argue that IDPA is not a sport but rather an activity solely for the purpose of practicing to kill people more efficiently. Whatever. It’s harder to level that argument against bullseye shooting, of course. What about the sport of fencing … could they argue against that?
But aside from the whole “guns and crime” arguments centered on social policy … that the Heller opinion linked handgun ownership so strongly with the natural right to self-preservation is profound.
Effectively, Heller has demolished most of the logic behind the “sporting purposes” arguments. I don’t believe that arms restrictions based on their “sporting purpose” can stand scrutiny in a post-Heller United States.