"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun," said Mao. "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," said the framers of the U.S. Constitution in the Second Amendment.
Unfortunately, there are always those who believe that a limited amount of government is vital to a civilized society, then unlimited government is the answer to all that ails mankind. Ironically, these people prefer to call themselves liberal. What is liberal about? Someone who advocates government power over the lives of individuals?
These so-called liberals have been promoting the effort to take away our Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. They argue that the Second Amendment is obsolete, or that it was never intended to give the right to keep and bear arms to individuals, only to the government. They quote as evidence the first few words of the amendment, "A well-regulated militia." Apparently, they like the words "well regulated," because the militia, as defined by the Militia Act of 1757, means all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45.
The Second Amendment will become obsolete only when violence and totalitarianism become extinct. In other words, when human nature is miraculously reformed. The Bill of Rights went into effect on Dec. 15, 1791. Not for even one of the 80,380 (and still counting) days since has there been an absence of oppressive governments. Every tyrannical government in the world today successfully retains their power through the barrel of a gun.
Without the Second Amendment, the powerful American electorate would very likely have long ago been reduced to no more than the equivalent of a "paper tiger." The thousands of brave, though unarmed, Chinese protesters for democracy in Tiananmen Square were suddenly martyrs because in China only the People's Army possesses the power that grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Geoffrey Moore
Hailey
