Letter to Marketplace.org NPR radio commentary

While witty and entertaining, Tim Bedore missed the real point about the so-called assault weapons. The second amendment to our constitution has nothing to do with hunting or even self-protection. Armed with more wit than understanding, Lewis spent all his arguments against a great paper tiger. It’s a shame more sportsman aren’t historians and constitutional scholars, but it’s about time someone pointed out that having serious military style fire power distributed amongst the general population was the chief mechanism to safeguard the people from a totalitarian takeover. The founding fathers reasoned that the combined firepower of the people residing in the states would always be greater than even the federal armies as long as, collectively, the people were as well armed as the federal government. This real power in the people would act as the final check to tyranny. Seeing how the British attacked armories, the founding fathers wrote that each family should maintain their own caches of sufficient ammo – and they weren’t taking about hunting deer. In the same way “right to carry” ordinances have decreased violent crime, the right to keep and bare arms forces not only bad guys, but all levels of government to respect the people. It has a palpable effect on the governed too. A powerless people are a docile dependent people.

Hitler was able to take advantage of his people because they had just been disarmed using gun registration and confiscation laws. They were susceptible to his rants and promises because the people’s sense of power had been neutralized -- replaced by a pattern of dependency. This is exactly the path being pursued by numerous western nations today. Sooo, has anyone noticed how a certain party also rants and promises the world? Is there a political party today that is reusing the pre-Hitler false claims of public safety and dis-armament?

Please understand, I am not arguing about some conspiracy. Hitler did not make the state wide gun-free zone rules, but he most definitely took advantage of the climate of powerlessness and dependency it fostered. It would be foolish arrogance to dismiss the wisdom of our founding fathers and to delude ourselves thinking tyranny could never happen here. That's what the second amendment is all about. ps no bag limit on terrorists and tyrants.

Steve Marquis