Today, a man I will undoubtedly never meet took umbrage at what I wrote on a friends thread about the NRA. He wrote: I dont want our government to control our 2nd amendment rights. That is in place to protect us from our government and each other. I had two responses to that. This was my first: The Second Amendment says that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. Lets be generous and say that militia means gun owners in general. It still says they have to be well-regulated. Regulated and controlled are synonyms. The Second Amendment says that guns, like any dangerous implement, need to be controlled by law. If you believe in the Second Amendment, you believe in gun control -- and vice versa. And this was my second: Id like to know how a heavily armed citizenry protects us from our government. Lets say our government gets too big for its britches, and we need to do something about it. How can we use our guns to change that? By overthrowing the government? But overthrowing the government is not a Constitutional right. Its a crime. It is no more legal here than in Cuba, Iran, or North Korea. By resisting arrest? Resisting arrest isnt a Constitutional right, either. Its illegal in all 50 states. By assassinating the President? Thats illegal, too. It has been illegal since the Washington administration. If Americans really do have a Constitutional right to use guns to protect us from our government, then we need a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing all Americans the right to overthrow the government, to resist arrest, and to assassinate the President. Until we have one, it will remain ILLEGAL to use guns to protect us from our government.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 17:43:21 +0000