In his televised inquisition of Gov. Sarah Palin, Charles Gibson prefaced his question about her position on guns by saying "80% of the country favors a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons".

 Maybe 80% of the country, thanks to misinformation from Gibson and his hoplophobic* media colleagues, doesn't realize that "semi-automatic assault weapon" is a contradiction in terms. So-called "assault rifles" are not semi-automatic, they are fully-automatic.

 Gov. Palin, to her credit, was quite emphatic about opposing such a ban. But she didn't really help when she justified gun ownership by invoking the hunting and sport-shooting culture of Alaska. Our Second Amendment has nothing -- zip/zilch/nada -- to do with hunting; it has to do with the citizenry being well-enough armed to deter tyranny by the government. Hunting, sport-shooting, firearm collecting, even personal defense against crime are all merely supplementary benefits of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

 And owning and being competent in the use of firearms is not exclusive to Alaskan culture; it is basic to American culture. There was a time when our country was known around the world as "a nation of riflemen". That goes right along with our unofficial American creed of self-sufficiency and rugged individualism; it's our responsibility as citizens to have guns and know how to use them.

 In that regard, it was quite fitting for Gov. Palin to invoke Alaskan culture; our collective American character was forged by life on the frontier, and Alaska is "The Last Frontier". 

 If we hadn't allowed Liberals to impose their agenda on education in this country over the last 50 years and water down or eliminate the teaching of American History, more Americans would understand how important the Second Amendment is, and how it is intended to protect all our other freedoms.

 *Hoplophobic: exhibiting an irrational fear of guns, to the point of blaming the gun itself for acts committed using a gun. The term was coined by the late Col. Jeff Cooper, author of "Principles of Personal Defense" and "To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth"; its root is the Greek hoplites, "weapon".