I have the right to not need to arm myself to protect myself from gun toting nut jobs.
They are obviously out there so you can either rely on yourself or rely on 911. We know how well 911 works, we have seen it at colleges, high schools, movie theaters and most recently at an elementary school. 100's of people are dead because they thought gun control was a good idea and that the govt & police would protect them.
And any government so tyrannical that you need to arm yourself against it, is not going to let this kind of discourse occur, and will have halted your access to conventional weapons without debate anyhow.
That is why I am well prepped now, before it comes to that.
The notion that you need to arm yourself in case you have to rise up against the government is so far fetched and out to lunch as to be laughable. If and when that were to ever occur, you'd better have more at hand than a mere gun.
It has happened many times in the last 200 years and still happening today (Arab Spring ring a bell?).
So no, there still isn't one side that reads as 'right'.
Why violent criminals and the mentally ill? Just curious.
Discharged felons (that is to say, those who have finished their sentences and are free and not on parole or probation) and the mentally ill who have not been adjudicated a danger to themselves or others (the standard for commitment) do not lose any of their other rights under the Bill of Rights. Why should they lose their Second Amendment rights?
I understand you're Canadian, but the principle applies. If you want to put it another way, why should discharged felons and the mentally ill whose mental illness falls short of commitment lose the right to self defence?
Those with a history of using weapons in crime or those with a history of mental illness are prone to be 'gun-toting nut-jobs' as Karrie puts it. That is good enough for me to preclude them from access to weaponry....of course I am ready to deal with those people so it doesn't really matter. Now someone out to commit a crime using a firearm is a lot less likely to do it if they have every reason to believe their victim is armed and will shoot to kill. The mentally ill on the other hand are not likely to realize the ramifications of shooting somebody or getting shot themselves.