Again, though myself not necessarily in favor of 'gun control' (though indeed there are already many and various forms in place), the argument made seems false. The founders were indeed speaking of muskets in a era when a group of determined, armed men stood a chance of resisting another. That is a bygone era, and the argument for firearms to keep down the central government went away long ago.
Really? Because just the past two years till today we have seen with our own eyes armed citizens not only keeping down the central govt, but overthrowing the central govt. and declaring their freedom. The US govt has been trying for 10yrs or so to defeat a small, when compared to the number of armed US citizens, band of "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan, UNSUCCESSFULLY I might add. Seems like that small band, never numbered more than in the tens of thousands, has defeated the mightiest army on the face of the earth...........this after defeating the 2nd most powerful army in the world a few short decades ago. You can never discount what a small, dedicated group of well armed men and woman are capable of. Too many regimes in world history have done so, to their detrimment. If even 1% of American LEGAL gun owners, forget the millions of illegal gun owners, resisted, you would have force of armed individuals much, much larger than the Mujahideen ever fielded against the Soviets, or the Taliban ever fielded against us. For you to say successful resistance against a tyrannical govt is a thing of a bygone era, it's obvious you know very little about current world events. The Founders NEVER intended our right to bear arms to be needed because of hunting, that was already a given as that was how most meat was gotten in those day, nor to protect you from rapists, car jackers or home invasions by criminal gangs, as we didn't have that large a problem with those things, it was meant to be the FINAL check and balance against the other three branches of Govt. as is evidenced by the very words found in our Declaration of Independence;
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
It may seem to be a bit of a trite expression, "An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject", but world history has shown us just how true this expression is and the Founders NEVER intended for "We the People" to be subjects. I don't know about you, or about most others here, but I know that I for one will never suibmit to any confiscation of my firearms, nor will I ever submit to any further restrictions on my God given, blood bought, 2nd Amendment rights, other than the sensible ones we already have in place, and I know there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other intelligent, freedom loving, history believing, American gun owners that feel the same way. Our govt has proven over the years that it is capable of committing outrageous atrocities against it's own citizens, of opressing them at will, of locking them up for causing NO harm to other people or other's property and of strong arming us to impose it's will upon the citizenry. This WITH over 80,000,000 citizens armed with almost 300,000,000 firearms. How much worse do you think it would have been, and will be, without that deterent? I for one don't want to find out and I for one will never live to see my children and grandchildren grow up in a nation like that.
This issue, more than any other in our recent history, will be the single most dividing issue in this nation. If the govt signs into law a mandatory buy back program for legally obtained weapons, like many Socialist Democrats are proposing, or a national gun owners registry, like many in the Socialist Democratic Party are proposing to better control otherwise law abding citizens, they will not only be forcing previously law abiding citizens to become criminals and outlaws, they very well may be sowing the seeds for civil war. I have been in a nation torn apart by civil war and it's not something I would ever want to see in this nation, but I have also been to nations where the Iron boot of the govt stays on the throats of it's citizens and where it presses down unimpeded and at will, and I would rather see civil war than that come to this nation. With civil war there is hope, with the boot, there is only death and despair. You may trust our leaders to be the only ones armed in this nation, but I don't. They have proven over and over and over again that they are petty, vindictive, corrupt, self serving, uncaring, morally bankrupt and in many cases plain old evil.
