03/06/2018
"You're not going to be able to fight against the government with your AR-15 anyway. They have helicopters and tanks. The 2nd amendment was written when everyone had muskets."
Let me first kill this argument the easy way, before I get into the history, social commentary, and whatnot. The simple version is that you ain't gonna find an infantryman, tanker, or pilot willing to open fire on his countrymen. And the cops outside of NY, NJ, and CA ain't gonna be too keen on jackbooting, either. So good luck controlling an armed populace with a few thousand feds. Moreover, people who make this argument obviously don't understand guerilla tactics/military strategy. Vietnam, Afghanistan (both against the USSR and US later), and Iraq are perfect examples of why superior firepower is not the deciding factor in a modern war.
"This isn't a dystopian novel. The government's not going to start rounding dissenters up just 'cause they outlawed 'assault rifles'."
Now then, on to history. Whenever you bring up how dangerous it is to set a precedent of disarming the populace, pro-gun control folks roll their eyes and go, "It's the 21st century. Do you really think the government's out to get you? Everything is broadcast worldwide now. Look at these other countries without guns. You're paranoid." Let's examine this with some examples, some of which I've discussed prior.
It was just during the Clinton administration that the Serb death squads rounded up Bosnians and machine gunned them into open graves. The Serbs and Croats took turns ra**ng women and children in public to screams so horrifying that one survivor wrote a book about the sound basically driving her to insanity.
In the 70s, Iranian women were wearing skirts, going to public universities, driving cars, and drinking wine. I'm sure plenty of people didn't think it was realistic that Khomeni and the revolution would turn that nation into a giant human rights violation. I'm sure lots of people said, "Executions in the street? R**e parties? Take off the tinfoil hat, it's the 70s, man!"
Plenty of Germans rightfully felt like they got hosed after WWI with the Treaty of Versailles. The N**i party seeked to right those wrongs economically, and restore Germany's industrial prominence and rights to self-defense. Plenty of Germans in the 30s would've surely looked at you like a madman if you'd said the chancellor of the party was going to go on to pull off a 6 million person genocide.
Actually, why am I moving backwards in time? Let's focus on the now. Let's keep it topical and relevant to the moment. In the Twitter and livestreaming era, North Korea is still locking people in prison cells too short for them to stand up in, and too narrow for them to lay out in. NBA star Enes Kanter can never see his family again, following Erdogan's call for his life imprisonment back in Turkey for daring to speak out against him. There is currently an ethnic cleansing occurring in Mynamar - people are being tortured and murdered while you read this sipping your coffee. There are buildings being reduced to rubble over the buried bones of innocent victims in Yemen this very minute.
Despite this, gun control proponents are still incredulous of the idea that a militia formed independent of the government, meant to protect the citizenry is viable. Despite these atrocities that make my spine chill, and my stomach cramp just reading about them, gun control proponents still cannot believe that I'm not willing to submit to the government just because of the disgusting actions of a few maniacs.
I am not without empathy. I do care deeply about massacres like the ones in Parkland, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook, and Aurora. But no, I will not surrender to subservience because of those attacks. No government has ever existed in history without attacking its people at some point, and I refuse to be complicit or complacent in allowing it to happen again.
I'll leave you with a question for the pro gun control side: why is it that the same government that you mistrust and want to restrict for things like racial profiling and corruption can now be trusted to not take advantage of you when you become less capable to fight back if necessary?
