We are Now Choosing Between
Guns and Words
By Rob Morse, January 20, 2013
Original article source.
The authors of the Bill of Rights created the Second Amendment(1) so that the government, with all its might, would treat citizens as its equals. President Obama's current proposals restrict the already weak right of civilian self-defense in the face of a powerfully armed government. That is exactly what I fear. I would rather trust my fellow citizens, with their many conflicting interests, than trust the continued kindness of a powerful government. Bad things happen when the government stops talking and starts shooting. That happened right here in the United States, and I don't want it to happen again.
Most recently, the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms murdered 76 men, women and children in Waco Texas in 1993.
Before that, the Ohio National Guard shot nine students, four of whom died, at Kent State University in 1970.
Police and firemen turned dogs and fire hoses on disarmed blacks in Birmingham, Alabama in early 1963.
The sheriff stole ballot boxes and threatened peaceful citizens in Athens, Tennessee in 1946. Led by returning army veterans, the citizens didn't put up with it.
The United States disarmed and interned 110,000 Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. The US government apologized 44 years later under Ronald Reagan.
In 1890, Federal agents disarmed and murdered 150 to 300 Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Most of those murdered were women and children. The Indians were disarmed "for their own safety."
The fugitive slave law of 1850 required that escaped slaves be returned to their owner. Accused slaves were not allowed to testify on their own behalf and trial by jury was denied. Gun control expanded after the civil war to deny newly freed slaves and immigrants the right to defend themselves.
The Second Amendment isn't about sport. The Second Amendment exists to keep politicians and law enforcement talking to us rather than demanding obedience at gunpoint. The Second Amendment discourages government officials from using guns when words would suffice. That really bothers some politicians and law enforcement officers.
(2)
When we disarm honest citizens, we are choosing between guns and words. We are choosing state sponsored violence over the frustration of peaceful political discussion. By disarming honest citizens, we are telling our government officials that they no longer need to listen to the people. That should frighten us all.
(1) in case you forgot, the Second Amendment to the Constitution reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
(2) No particular offense intended if you are one of the many corrupt politicians I left out of the montage.
