"...to disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them..." - George Mason
Indeed, history has demonstrated this very principle time and time again.
The intention of this blog is not to rant about gun rights. The mentality of the gun-control lobby, however, is indicative of a much larger, and more invasive, problem. That mentality is one that has not truly paused to consider the nature of the establishment of government itself. It is true that human beings have been establishing an "order" to their societies since societies have been organized but few ever truly consider "why?" Frequently, and in the case of our own state, governments are established following a thorough dissatisfaction with the previous one. Mere dissatisfaction ultimately festers into bloody revolution and, voilà, new government. What is it, then, that consistently compels the people to resort to bloodshed to achieve even a hope of a better quality of life? Well, Thomas Jefferson may have had a thing or two to say on the subject:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
In a nutshell? Jefferson argued that rights are not granted by governments but are granted by God, and government is the tool that men have devised to protect these God-given rights. However, Jefferson recognizes that a time comes with many governments where the tables are turned. This generally doesn't happen overnight but is rather a long process. Once the process is full speed, however, it would appear to the casual on-looker that the rights of the people are granted by the government, instead of by God. This scenario, people, is the difference between subjects and citizens.
So what do gun rights have to do with anything? As George Mason so discerningly pointed out, an unarmed populace is one that is easily manipulated by the powers that be. Armed citizens, however, are a final guard against tyranny in government. Does that mean I think Jim Brady is working to disarm citizens for an eventual police state? No. Jim Brady is just an idiot. However, the constant focus on "gun control" (instead of crime control) is just another link in the chain...in that very gradual process.
