A Little Story

I typed up this story for a Subaru board I'm on, to describe RKBA to those who haven't yet "taken the red pill"

Lemme tell you a story.

A long time ago, a bunch of guys got together with a really unique opportunity. They got to build their own country *from scratch*. No one had done this in a very long time, and they all came from places in which rule and government, had, for centuries, been from birthright alone.

Think about that- you get to build your own nation, make up all of your own rules, and do anything you want! No precedents anywhere that you have to follow.

So, as everyone knows, they came up with a few ground rules- Chief among these were that the government of this new country would *always* be a government of the people, and the people were served by the government. This was key.

From this one ground rule came a bunch of sub-rules- like people could say what they wanted about the government without restriction. All men are created equal, etc. People have the freedom to choose a religion they like and worship they way they want to. They covered all the shortcomings of places that they left.

Now remember- the basic rule for this new country was that government will always be a people's government. They put in safeguards to that it would be hard for government to go out of control. They instituted the three branches of Government, made up a system of checks and balances, and restricted terms in office and suchlike. The key idea here, again, was to keep the government under control.

However, even with all these checks and balances in place, there were still plenty of examples throughout history in which the government started out doing what it was supposed to, then accumulating more and more power, and then the people were pretty much out of control and at the government's mercy.

So, they instituted an additional rule, which was considered to be an integral part of the checks and balances system of their new nation- the rule was that all people shall have the right to keep and bear arms. Not to defend the country against invaders, and certainly not to have the right to hunt, but rather so that if the new government *did* somehow go out of control, the citizens would always have the right and means to regain control of the country by force.

A final "reset button" if you will. A means of, when all else (and I really mean ALL else) fails, the people can rise up and take control of the country again. This is why the second amendment exists. It is for this, and for no other reason.

*****

Now, that all being said, the country is a pretty stable place right now. We have democratically run elections every four years, the checks and balances system more or less works, and it's been running okay, with some major changes here and there (think: Income tax- only started in the 1930's) but otherwise pretty stable. Those guys did a really great job when they wrote those rules. It has produced a pretty stable, flexible, and prosperous country so far.

But...

There are changes. Lately, the Patriot Act for instance. It was a law that passed into being under somewhat shady circumstances, if you recall. So far it has restricted the freedom of the people only a little bit, not too much to be concerned with. But it will still be law when the next president rolls into town. And the next one.

In ten years, they could easily strengthen it. Especially if (when) there is another terrorist attack. And what would you do if, in 20 years, it gets strengthened again, and this time there is a curfew involved for some people? You can see where I am going with this.

The reason the RKBA people are so zealous over this issue is that it gives away the final, ultimate control that citizens have over the government. And while we don't necessarily need an assault rifle today to overthrow the government (Heck, it's almost 2PM and I haven’t needed an assault rifle *all day long*), can you guarantee that you won't need one in ten years? Twenty? How about fifty years from now? How about a hundred? Two hundred?

Take the guns away now, and they will be gone forever. We want this country to be around and stable for a long, long time. That's why they fight this stuff so hard right now. To paraphrase the gun control folks, it’s For The Children.