This is specifically for liberals and especially for liberals who are panicked about Donald Trump being elected President: What do you think about the right to bear arms now? Perhaps you don't understand. I have heard your arguments favoring strict gun control. I have hacked many of them to pieces. No, our Founding Fathers were not talking exclusively about an armed militia. If you read the records of how our nation was founded, you would know that the right to bear arms was prompted as a complex combination of many factors, including the fact that it was associated with aristocracy in Europe and it was used by most European governments as a way of keeping the "rabble" under control. The final argument, which I have not really touched on much, is that our current government is so pure and good that the right to bear arms is no longer a necessary right to keep the government accountable to the people. So, what do you think about the right to bear arms now?
Personally, I don't think Trump is going to be some fascist dictator that tries to take over America. He is the President. The power of the President is far more limited than most people believe. Our government was specifically designed with checks and balances. If Trump does try anything extreme, Congress has the power to prevent it. Yes, Congress is Republican controlled. That does not mean they are stupid though. There is only so much damage they will let him do, and in my personal opinion, we need stuff to get broken, so that someone can fix it right. The Democrats sure are not going to get rid of Obamacare, but maybe if Trump does, they will eventually replace it with something that actually works. That said though, let's entertain this idea that Trump might try something bad and actually succeed.
If Trump makes a power play to wrest control from other parts of the government what do we do? Yes, I have heard some of you liberals suggest that this is a serious possibility. While I don't believe that it is, I am willing to entertain the idea. Some of you have tried to tell me that the right to bear arms is no longer important precisely because this sort of thing could never happen. You have told me that you have complete faith in our government. So, what about now? Do you still think that it could never happen? Do you still think that we should take all the guns away?
I don't know what you think, and honestly it does not really matter right now (at least till the next election). Might I suggest that you rethink your position on this though. Yes, guns are dangerous. So are cars, and cars kill many times more people than guns. Kitchen knives are also dangerous, and they injure many many times more people than guns. The fact is, freedom is not free. The freedom of this nation was payed for with blood. Since it was founded, the sacrifice of human lives has been required many times to maintain our freedom. Yes, some deaths may have been prevented by taking away our guns. How many more deaths would have been allowed to occur though? One of the most common places for people to commit mass shootings now days has been schools, because they know no one else will have a gun. In Europe we are seeing terrorist shooting sprees that just don't happen in the U.S., because terrorists know that any American adult could be carrying a gun and use it to cut their crime short. Most importantly though, can we really trust that our government would be the same if it did not have to worry about the fact that millions of Americans are armed? Perhaps our government would still be the same, but a recent President boldly told Congress that the American people cannot be trusted to govern themselves. Can we really trust that people like this would not have taken greater advantage of us, if we did not have access to guns? Can you trust that our current President will never do something that could require the people to assert their right to be governed as they choose?
I doubt that Trump will go so far off the deep end that the American people will need to use guns to assert their authority, but what if? If the people of this country can elect Donald Trump to be President, is it not possible that they could also put just the wrong people in Congress that our freedom might be put in jeopardy? The right to bear arms is complicated. It is what separates the U.S. from countries with a formal aristocracy. It ensures a certain level of classlessness. It gives us greater ability to protect ourselves. It also gives us a certain level of insurance against corrupt government. Conservatives have understood this for centuries. Perhaps now liberals can have a greater appreciation for the right to bear arms?
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