by Michael Collins

Created on: July 24, 2007

The second amendment is not only essential to allow those who cannot adequately defend themselves prevent their rights from being violated, but also to prevent the government from over-stepping their boundaries - a duty that, I don't have to tell you, many have neglected.

The spirit of the second amendment was to keep the populace armed so that they could resist the tyranny of another dictator (the monarchy) from enslaving their bodies and minds. Never again, they vowed, would they allow someone to assert control over them without a fight. And guns are the great equalizer: people are born with different capacities for strength and physical power. A gun puts the feeblest of men on par with the most muscular of behemoths.

To paraphrase Penn Jillette, one half of the illusionist duo of Penn & Teller, the argument that one should call the police when their rights are being violated works well - until you have to protect yourself FROM the police. Then who do you call?

The police cannot be everywhere at once. There are not enough of them, and if there were, the term "police state" would take on a startlingly literal meaning that scares the hell out of me. People have a right to defend themselves, and not all people are lucky enough to be 6'10", 300 pounds, and possessing biceps bigger than most people's heads.

As such, ANY gun control legislation is an infringement on the rights of the individual: his or her right to own property (the gun), his or her right to determine their own destiny (should I own a gun, which type of gun should I buy, do I let this other idiot with a gun take it from me), and his or her right to self-defense. With gun control, the government will be in charge of all forms of force: retaliatory and initial. They will hold all the cards, and we shall be but slaves - never able to fight back on equal footing.

We don't need gun control - we need criminal control.

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