AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Anti-gun activists often like to look at the introductory clause of the Second Amendment as some dictate. It says “well regulated militia,” after all. You don’t need a gun if you’re not in the militia!

Well, a Missouri lawmaker has offered up a couple of bills that might just shut them up for a little while on that front.

Two bills introduced by state Rep. Andrew McDaniel would require residents to purchase firearms while providing $1 million in tax credits on a first-come, first-served basis to residents who fall under the law.

The first bill, the McDaniel Second Amendment Act, would require Missouri residents aged 21 or older to purchase a handgun. It also would allot up to $1 million per year in tax credits for residents who purchased weapons to comply with the law. The bill was filed in late February.

The second bill, the McDaniel Militia Act, was filed days after the handgun bill and would require Missouri residents aged 18 to 35 to purchase an AR-15. It also would provide a tax credit of up to $1 million per year to incentivize the purchase of weapons.

While the bills do not specify any penalties for adults who refuse to comply with the provisions, both stipulate that the Missouri Department of Revenue can “promulgate rules to implement the provisions of this section.” The bills would sunset in six years if not extended by the state legislature.

Neither bill has a hope in hell of passing, but they’re amusing.

If the militia clause specifies just who can own guns, as many anti-gunners argue, then this should easily take care of that, right? It says that since all able-bodied people are the militia, then they should be all buying AR-15s.

Makes sense to me.

Again, they’re not going to pass. Even if they did, they’d be virtually unenforceable, must like Kennesaw, Georgia’s ordinance requiring a firearm in every home.

That doesn’t matter, though. What matters is that this is a slap in the face of anti-gun activists. It’s a reminder that guns are a key part of our nation and a viable part of our national defense. While our armed forces are our first line of defense, Americans aren’t the kind of people to just let those brave men and women bear the brunt of a homeland invasion on their own.

While that’s not particularly likely right now, that’s not to say it never will. Things change, and we’d be stupid to assume we’ll always be a superpower, much less the only one. Sooner or later, we’ll have another rival like the old Soviet Union and that possibility, that someone will come here to start a ruckus, will return.

The Missouri bills at least seem to recognize that we need guns not just for our defense, but for our nation’s.

That’s something that anti-gunners would do well to remember. Then again, do they even care about our country?