COMMENT ON THE IDEA OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT AS PROTECTION
AGAINST TYRANNY
Much as I hate the way American police and military behave
week-in, week-out, I don't understand how any thinking person can believe the
Second Amendment offers any protection whatsoever.
The police force of just a single large American city today
constitute a small army, indeed about two divisions, and they are extremely
well-equipped.
Rebellious people with rifles would stand no chance against
them under any circumstances.
And then, just behind the police, there's the National Guard
of each state, armed with everything from jets to tanks and flame-throwers.
And, of course, behind that, there’s the massive American
armed forces armed with plenty of terrifying weapons.
Clowns out in the streets in camouflage clothes with rifles,
even large crowds of them, would only provide target practice.
There is zero protection in the Second Amendment, and of
course it can be cogently argued it was never intended to be protection, just a
relic of the way people prepared for wars in the late 18th century
with citizens’ militias.
If you want a better country, one somewhat free as opposed
to what you have now in America, you need to work for immense internal reforms.
Just the way police are hired, trained, and armed are immense
issues. Generally, they are not screened for psychological problems – such as a
leaning towards psychopathy - and often they are fairly low in intelligence.
Then they are thinly trained and given lethal weapons with virtually no
consequences for using them against unarmed citizens.
A standing armed forces the size of some small countries is
a huge issue. Virtually all the Founding Fathers would have despised the
Pentagon. It is like cancer to a democratic society.
The Pentagon influences American attitudes and practices
tremendously, from making young men into trained killers in large numbers to
supplying many of the men who end up becoming brutal police. It is also by
nature authoritarian and does not help democratic values thrive.
America truly is a violent and brutal place. Guns in the
closet can nothing to alter that fact.
