The American Spectator

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GUNS AND FREEDOM
Re: Patrick O'Hannigan's The Second Amendment Shuttle:

In 1791, the Bill Of Rights was added to the Constitution of the United States of America. These specially enumerated rights of the citizens of the new nation were added for specific reasons.

In the case of the second amendment it was to limit the centralized Federal government from restricting the possession and ownership of firearms by the populous. This restriction was, largely, passed along to the states as the logical extension of legal cases that ruled that other amendments, guaranteeing the rights of citizens under the Federal government, also applied to the States.

The reason for the inclusion of the Second amendment into the Constitution is simple to understand. The people of this country had spent eight years fighting to defeat the forces of a government that was not only not responsive to their pleas, but showed no hesitation to use force to make them bend the knee. The colonies had no central government, no standing armed forces, nor anyway to rapidly procure one. Except to call for volunteers, each man to supply his own weapon. They had learned the lesson that a large, powerful central government was not the friend of the common man and that that if the common man were left without the means to defend himself against armed force, he was destined to live in chains.

This sentiment was illustrated by several of our greatest Americans:

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined." -Patrick Henry(1)

 "I ask sir, who is the militia? It is the whole people...To disarm the people, that is the best and most effective way to enslave them..." - George Mason(1)

 "Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust people with arms." -James Madison(1)

 "...Arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace." -Thomas Paine(1)

 "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States..." -Noah Webster (1)

On the flip side of the argument for gun control:

In 1929 the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, approximately 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.(1)

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915-1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.(1)

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and others, who were unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.(1)

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.(1)