Doing my part

...to fill up Jazz's blog space. It comes to my attention that I'm not taking up enough space in Jazz's blog. OK, it came to my attention by Jazz saying so. Not very subtle. You want more stuff, Jazz? OK, but remember, you asked for it.

Why Banning Gun Ownership Would Be Anti-liberal

Over at Poetic Leanings, I was reading an entry about the second amendment, and I can't say that he's making a bad point, he's not. There are indeed gun-crazed morons hanging around,and terrorist who mean us harm, and they're a problem. And yes, having controls on the purchase of weapons is a good thing, but - but - every non-felon-citizen in this country should have the right to own one.

The second amendment specifically says:

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.

Do you know why the people have the right to keep and bear arms? It was so that they could overthrow the government, if it got out of hand. Isn't that funny? People who designed the new government decided to tack on an amendment meant to handle the situation should that government ever go too far. In case we were suddenly restricted in our freedoms, if we found ourselves oppressed by something that we had gotten ourselves into, we're supposed to be able to get ourselves out of it, and we're supposed to be able to get ourselves out of it by force. They were revolutionaries, they staged a revolution. They lived under the thumb of a government that didn't allow them to do this kind of stuff, so they committed treason. We think of the founding fathers as all quaint and benevolent, but face it, there was an awful lot of shooting that had to go on in order for the USA to break away from Mother England.

So how does this add up to banning gun ownership as anti-liberal? Simple. Being able to influence the way our government works is our right as Americans. We vote, and we send representatives to make our laws, ostensibly in our name, based on what we, the people, actually want. We can call our Congressman and say "You're right, there ought to be a law!". And, we can make mistakes in the selection of our representatives as well. In the event that we, as a nation, somehow accidentally elect an entire governmental body of people who don't want to work for the greater good, well, we need to be able to stop them, if necessary, by force. By definition, a liberal is a person who favors the protection of civil liberties. Being able to own a gun is one of the liberties I feel it's my duty to protect.