The Right to Bear Arms

This has nothing to do with the arms of a bear, or with wearing a vest in the summer.

Following on from my Billet post here, I am returning to the US Constitution

The 2nd Amendment, possibly the most talked about part of the US Constitution outside of the US is known as the right to bear arms.

It states:

“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.”

As a European my brain has been washed to laugh and scoff at Americans who want to carry guns.  Utter lunatics.  I see high school shootings and shake my head in self righteous disbelief and the idiocy of an American culture that wants to own weapons.

We are smug in Europe, we don’t need to own weapons of any kind because we have a police force and we’re civilised and sensible.  The police will protect us.  The state has created a law enforcement body that will keep me safe.

But is that true?  Or is it worth taking a step back and asking, are Americans the idiots, or is it me?

The people who wrote the American constitution knew exactly what it was like to have those in change, those in the government, the monarch, come for them with weapons.  Americans had a militarised army turned on them, killing them.  The ultimate power in the land was killing its citizens for revolting.

Fortunately for the Americans who fought back against the monarchical tyrant they were armed.  This made it a slightly fairer fight.  Although an organised and trained military is still something difficult to challenge even for a citizen with a gun.

Americans knew, that if they ever faced a tyrant again, a tyrant who had first brain washed them to not carry a gun, they probably wouldn’t stand a chance.

On the other hand, in Europe, the shock to the monarchical tyrants that the peasantry can rise up and with their ill equipped milita could overthrow the greatest and most powerful of armies, that must have come as a shock. It must have been terrifying. How do you make sure that never happens again?  Start by de-weaponising the peasants.  Thats stage 1.  Stage 2 would be make them think that its stupid to even carry a weapon.

If I was confronted by an armed and dangerous gang who had machetes and who were going to kill me, in that moment, there is no army, there is no police force, there is no state there to help and protect me.  Do I wish I had a gun, or not?  In this event I wish I had a gun.  I wish I had at least a chance of defending myself even if the event ended in my death.  I would at least increase my odds of scaring away the violent gang. In Europe, I don’t have a gun, why?  Because the system has been set up to make sure that I cannot over throw the tyrants. 

Making a single peasant defenceless in this moment of violence which leads to their death is a minor unfortunate side effect for the powers that be.  They have de-armed me, left me helpless, but thats fine, because at least I’m not armed if the mob gathers to overthrow the tyrant.  Thats the far more important threat to neutralise and the one those in power in Europe sought to address in creating the current system.

And that is the position of all Europeans.  We are unarmed.  In the very moment when our lives are in danger, we are defenceless.  We are defenceless because the state has made it so.  We are also expendable.  It doesn’t really matter that one peasant dies.  What really matters is that if the peasants want to revolt, they are also defenceless and cannot fight back against the militarised police and technologically advanced army. The tyrant will win. That is what counts in the European system.

In Europe we are taught that the American revolution is history.  These things don’t happen now.  But the American revolution is around 6 generations ago.  Its not that far back.  And whilst the peasants have been told to stop thinking about it, those in power know that the mob is out there.  Even Barak Obama raised this threat to bankers during the 2008 financial crisis as reported here:

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations.

“Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

It was said that the Obama administration reviewed the number of gun owners in the US and that was part of their decision when thinking about how much money to give wealthy bankers as opposed to how much support to give the peasants.  The US military is strong, but its not a good look if you use that strength to kill 30% of the population who owns guns.

And today we see a US President who has a dislike of a Californian State Governor can send in armed militia to stir up the local population, and when the mob fights back, he can use that as an excuse to send in the army to take control from his political opponents.  The very definition of a tyrant, and maybe only the start of whats coming down the path in the US and Europe.

Maybe the need for the mob to fight back is not as far away as we think.  At least the Americans are in a better position to fight back than we are in Europe.