Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Firearms Refresher Course

My dad sent me this amusing e-mail:

Firearms Refresher Course
1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3. Colt: The original point and click interface.
4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10. The United States Constitution (c)1791. All Rights Reserved.
11. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you not understand?
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.
15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.
24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

While this is great for a chuckle or three, it also highlights some very legitimate points.  If there is a theme in the Constitution, it is balance: the checks and balances of the three branches of the federal government, the balances between the local/state and federal government, and so on.  The Founders deliberately limited the power of all levels of government, and left everything not specifically mentioned in the document to the people of the nation.  In the process of creating all those levels of government, they put checks and balances to prevent any one piece from becoming too strong or too influential.  The Founders knew what happened when a government became too powerful - they had lived under monarchies, remember.  They felt so strongly about preventing a tyrannical government that they enshrined a RIGHT for all American citizens to own their own weapons as the ultimate and final check on government.  If the government is the only one allowed to have weapons, they win no matter what.  If the American people have the right to own their own weapons, the people of the nation can rise up against a truly tyrannical government and succeed, throwing out the tyrant(s).

This philosophy was by design, and for an extremely good reason.

The e-mail above is humorous, but it should also be considered very serious stuff.


There's my two cents.

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