From here outside the gold fish bowl of US politics I'm sitting in slack jawed amazement of the number of times Ive read or heard in your media this quackadoodle argument trotted out that the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms is the US citizens best/only defense against governmental tyranny.
This has been touted by various gun nutty shills from the mock reasonable doofuses like Louis Gohmert (R-Clownland), through to despicable liars and conspiracy facilitators like Larry Pratt and Wayne LaPierre, to the foaming at the mouth rabid carnival barkers like Alex Jones and James Yeager.
Allow this humble diarist if you will to dispel this stupid myth. Follow me my chums past the orange barbed wire.....
1) Errrr....But....
History is a good place to start. Not the screams and screeches of 1776 and cold dead hands of the arch history revisionists of the nutty right. No. Recent history. History we have all lived through.
If, as is claimed, owning guns is an American citizens best and only defense against the rules of a tyrannical government they fight against, tell me how it worked out for any of the following brave "patriots" and "sovereign citizens": The Order/Silent Brotherhood? The Aryan Republican Army? Randy Weaver and his clan at Ruby Ridge? David Koresh and his millennial end times cult at Waco? The Montana Freemen of Justus Township? The Republic Of Texas militia group at Fort Davis? The Hutaree Militia of Michigan?
Ah, that's right. They picked fights with the supposedly tyrannical government and they all lost.
Because:
2) Armored Cars and Tanks and Bombs
Face it. Only in the Insane Killer Klown Posse world of the gun nutty extremists can a group of Ramboesques take on a government and win. Only in the Hollydud world of Red Dawn does a small group of plucky armed individuals successfully take down Spetsnaz troops tooling around town in tanks and APCs. The most heavily armed militia men will have at best outmoded surplus military equipment scavenged illegally, and some IEDs. On the other side will be heavily armed and highly trained troops with planes, tanks, support weapons, helicopters, drones, a comms network, central command, snipers, and all the other stuff that gets Tom Clancy in a froth. And when it is time to send in the last resort, there is your own version of our Brit SAS - the Navy SEAL teams, special forces specialists and all the other bad boys from Osama's worst nightmare.
Knock knock! Who's There? BOOM! Blat Blat Blat..... Seal Team 6!
Only in the world of the Truman Diaries and quackadoodle Old Testament mythology does wee little David and his sling take down big armored Goliath. In the real world Goliath shrugs off the slingstone hit, then pounds David into hamburger.
So, as we can see my rational chums, this nonsense claim that owning a gun somehow protects you from the US government acting in a tyrannical manner and shipping you off to some internment camp in the desert is somewhat laughable. And if you still don't believe me ask one of the Japanese Americans shipped off to the desert happy camps during WW2, or one of their descendants.
Alex Jones and all the rest want to scream how disarming the population brought in tyranny, and wave about totally wrong and idiotic examples like Hitler, Mao and Stalin in a Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My! Gish Gallop of historical revisionist nonsense. Well Alex old chum, we Brits have been a mostly disarmed nation during the whole 20thC. Number of tyrannical governments? Zero. No tyrants, no guns needed to make sure there were none.
And while we are discussing tyranny, how about the tyranny of a tiny minority of US citizens that are both NRA members AND agree with the slimy shills like LaPierre and Pratt that there should be little or no sane gun controls in place get to dominate the conversation?
How about the NRA and GOA thinking that they represent the views of ALL gun owners in the US, when in fact their membership is a minority of those gun owners? Tyranny or not?
How about LaPierre the Tyrant ignoring what the majority of his own members agree with to instead represent the views of the minority and his real paymasters the arms industry? Tyranny?
No, owning a gun, guns, or the fantasy land armory of Alex Jones and the gun nutty character from the film Tremors is NO protection against government tyranny.
Shall I tell you what is?
Your vote, and your right to vote.
and
That Amendment that comes before the 2nd....the one that guarantees you free exercise, free speech, a free press and free assembly.
Try this mental exercise:
If you take away the guns, you will still have the vote and protections of the 1st Amendment to rely on, but....
If you take away the vote and the 1st, how long do you think you will keep those guns?
Now which is the real protection against tyranny then?
Anyway guys, duty calls. Over to you for my slow basting. Crack on....