Over 50 years ago, I was a Viet Nam veteran who opposed the 2nd Amendment. Now, I am a Viet Nam veteran who enthusiastically supports the 2nd Amendment.

When I returned home from Viet Nam in 1969, I was pretty bitter and disillusioned. I didn't think that the war was worth it, and had a very low opinion of the US government. In fact, I truly hated it.<br><br>So, I had no use for guns, either, figuring that they were only good for killing people. I supported gun control and the idea that only the government should have firearms. Keep in mind that I had seen, firsthand, what automatic weapons and artillery could do to the human body, and - at the time - I didn't want anyone else to ever have to go through that.<br><br>Then, something changed. Maybe it was the Kent State shootings, but the more I learned about what our government was really doing, the more I began to distrust it. I no longer felt that it was a good idea to give it a monopoly on weapons, because that just makes it too easy for it to push us around.<br><br>So, I started to see the 2nd Amendment in a different way. I realized that it wasn't just about hunting or sport shooting, and it certainly wasn't about overthrowing the government, either. It was about defending oneself and one's loved ones from an overreaching government. It was about not ending up like the peasants in Viet Nam, who were at the mercy of whoever had the most firepower.<br><br>Now, I'm a gun owner, and I make sure to practice with my weapons regularly. I think that all of us should. Because if we don't, that gives our government carte blanche to do whatever it wants, and screw us over even more than it already does.<br><br>Edit: I posted this on a gun forum, and it was removed, stating that "We do not tolerate posts from anti-gunners, even those who have had a change of heart. It’s not worth the risk of someone seeing that post and getting the wrong idea. Some chambers have very strict rules on things that would otherwise be perfectly fine here, and this is one of them."