*Down here in Spain I’m looking at the catalog from a company would sell me a 9mm Browning auto or a Ceska CZ858 Tactical. What some would describe as an assault rifle. Both available with possession of a hunting license. But the Spanish aren’t Brits. They seem to regard themselves as ‘fit & proper’ rather than dangerously unstable. Or, at least, those they elect do.

Paul, I know people who hunt with pistols (as well as muzzle-loaders, AR15s, longbows and crossbows). I also know a fellow who hunts wild boars with only a large knife. He carries a pistol for snakes. And he is insane, but that’s beside the point.

The S&W 50 cal revolver is actually more powerful than an Israeli Desert Eagle (although unlike the semiautomatic Desert Eagle, it only has a five bullets).

One could blow a polar bear’s head off with it. So, yes, it is perfectly possible to hunt with a pistol – although the range is short.

Those on work visas without greencards can normally only obtain guns by either

1, Being a diplomat
2, Being an invited foreign law enforcement officer
3, Being in the country for a sporting event.

It is the last category those on work visas frequently use to obtain guns. If you can show you have an invitation to a shooting competition, or a valid hunting permit, then you are allowed to purchase guns as long as you have been resident in your state for the required time. Some states also require you to take a hunter safety course (and some states require these anyway before issuing a permit).

I believe some states don’t allow non greencarded immigrants to buy guns at all.

Then again, there’s always the so called “gun show loophole” which just means that the background check is not required for private sales. I have seen guns for sale at flea markets and there are websites that pick up the slack where Craigslist falls down.

No.

But what I’m suggesting is that presumably as a result of some wrangling on Capitol Hill they’ve passed a law than on the face of it prevents non-citizens from owning firearms for everything except hunting, and then they turn a blind eye while applications for a hunting permit become a defacto gun-fitness test for non citizens.

It seems rather cumbersome and disingenuous. It seems bizarre for example that a person who is worried about a crack head kicking down his door has to go on a course that is going to teach him about how to use a tree stand safely, or the ethics of hunting deer humanely.

It just seems that we have a law which is doing one thing, but has been designed to look as though it is doing something else entirely for the sake of political expediency.

Although I wouldn’t complain about it too much personally. It’s a loophole that’s likely to be closed if too much attention is drawn to it, rather than a more honest and transparent mechanism being put in its place.

And that would leave a great many residents of the US with no legal defence at all.

Several states will allow legal resident non citizens to purchase firearms if they can produce a valid hunting permit (and sometimes a hunter safety certificate).

Insofar as I can tell they are quite happy if these people then immediately go out and buy a shotgun/AR15/whatever for home defence and then never go hunting with it. Evidently the law as it stands is designed to prevent non citizens purchasing arms for any purpose other than “sporting”, and yet the authorities seem quite happy to allow people to tick some boxes to sidestep this.

Now I’m not saying legal aliens should not be allowed guns for home defence. Indeed, if I do come across I fully intend to take advantage of this particular loophole in the law.

What I find odd is taking legal steps to achieve a particular end, then expressing total indifference to its subversion. Why bother with the pretence in the first place?

As to gun ownership per se, there are many reasons for it and hunting is onely one. The purpose of the second amendment is not to protect our right to kill deer, but rather our right to kill politicians who become tyrants. An armed citizenry is the reason this country exists in the first place. And if it’s to remain free (or, rather, to regain the freedom we once enjoyed) it’s the only means of achieving that.

After all – otherwise Mr Glock would not have made his fortune.

Of course there are also some pretty automatic shotguns (for example the Korean one) – but we had better not “go there”.