It’s worth asking whether we should consider scrapping the right to buy and own guns outlined in the Second Amendment.This argument is popular, but it exhibits a misunderstanding of what rights are. The Bill of Rights is not a wish list or an enshrinement of what society thinks is most important. Rights are not requests to the government for things that we want or even need. On the contrary, rights handcuff the government. They protect us from government intrusion on our freedom.
As Chinese dictator Mao Zedong said, “All political power comes from the barrel of a gun.”
Society is much safer from the abuse of power when the power is distributed somewhat evenly. Limiting government ensures that power stays spread out and doesn’t get clumped up in government. In order to limit government, we must set boundaries for what government can do. Holding a monopoly on guns, which are ultimately the essence of political power, must be something that government cannot do. Government is already the only organization in society that is allowed to use guns on people. It would be risking an abuse of power to also make it the only organization in society that gets to own guns.
The Second Amendment is the right that preserves all our other rights. History is littered with examples of tyrants that disarmed their own people just before slaughtering them. A few examples include Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot in Cambodia, and Idi Amin in Uganda. Humanity hasn’t outgrown the threat of tyranny. Government oppression made a strong showing in the last century and it continues to exist today. The protection of liberty that we have in the Second Amendment is still timely, and it will be as long as human nature retains its propensity for evil.
If we use our freedoms correctly, we don’t need to risk letting the government trample on rights in the name of safety, and in this way we make our country more stable for the future. But we do have a choice, and we can choose incorrectly. As Benjamin Franklin warned,
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”