The article points out that:
A quick scan through the list continues the point. Chile (10.7) comes in with the same arms rate as Venezuela, but the nations present starkly divergent civil freedoms. Russia (8.9) is slightly more armed than Ireland (8.6). The Netherlands (3.9) is on par, as far as weapons go, with oppressive Turkmenistan (3.8). Israel and Georgia see the same arms rate as Iran and Belarus and yet exist on opposite ends of Freedom House's rank.The best quote:
"This relationship between gun rates and [democracy] isn't based upon social science - it's based upon philosophy," said Aaron Karp, a political science professor at Old Dominion University and one of the Small Arms Survey's senior consultants. "Part of the reason why people who are advocates of individual gun rights tend to be opposed to social science is that they're not comfortable with it."And while you are reading that article, check out the related Great Gun Gobbledygook: The Paradox of Second Amendment Hardliners:
In the current debate over gun control, the pro-gun lobby has an ace card up its sleeve: We need weapons to prevent government tyranny, they say. These self-styled champions of liberty see guns as the ultimate insurance policy to protect the Constitution. The problem is that most of those making this argument also strongly support a massive U.S. military -- exactly the behemoth we must be armed against. It's the great gun gobbledygook.The irony isn't lost on me that the Second Amendment was supposed to protect against a large, standing military. On the other hand, the historically ignorant can be led.
BAAHHHHH!BAAHHHHH!BAAHHHHH!BAAHHHHH!BAAHHHHH!
The core notion that the founding fathers wanted a nation that had access to firearms to rise up against government tyranny is a fraud.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have enshrined as our liberties are specified in the Constitution and other formal documents. The only tyranny the founding fathers were concerned about was government without representation, particularly taxation, along with the same traditional rights like habeus corpus that were traditional in English law, with roots in the Magna Carter (and earlier).
We originally had the right to own slaves; that was specified, until we had the consensus to remove it. We had a right to drink alcohol, then we didn't, now we do again, because it was specified in the Constitution and other legislation. Women did not originally have the vote, now we do, because of a legislative change reflecting a majority consensus.
Rights are not innate, rights are defined by consensus, and then codified in legislation. There is NO right to armed revolt in the Constitution, in state charters, or in any legislation anywhere - we have NO such tradition or consensus. That is a fringe myth, a crazy misinterpretation of what the founding fathers wrote. They were very clear in forming a strong consensus on that in the Constitution, and it appears in some form in every state constitution or charter, as well as in other legislation.
What makes us free are our civil liberties, especially those relating to representative government and voting. Guns just get us killed, which is not free, except perhaps in some odd metaphysical sense of letting our spirit out of the human body meat envelope in which it resides - an artificial and theoretical dichotomy rather than factual reality.
Guns kill people; people with guns kill people -- and wound many times more, and for the most part that is without good reason or sound legal foundation.
Absolutely no right whatsoever to have an insurrection. Article II, Section iii pretty much puts paid to that notion. Also, the militia is tasked with suppressing insurrections under Article I, Section 8, Clause 15.
ReplyDeleteWhatever theoretical merit there may be to the argument that there is a “right” to rebellion against dictatorial governments is without force where the existing structure of the government provides for peaceful and orderly change.–Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951).
Thanks Janette for your comment - I couldn't agree more!
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