Gun Control: The Rationale

Probably the most famous argument for gun control was born of scraps of film pieced together by master manipulator Michael Moore. Bowling for Columbine, two hours of drippy emotionalism, witch hunting, character assassination, misrepresentation, race-baiting and wrong conclusions, received Hollywood’s highest commendation, The Oscar.

Moore spends the entire movie trying to get an answer to his question: What makes two young men walk into their school armed with automatic weapons in order to murder their peers?

Of course, nobody [except maybe Marilyn Manson] gives him a decent answer. Moore seems to conclude that the availability of guns, Charlton Heston, racism, and the Welfare Reform Act of 1994, are the cause for the violence. [When asked what he would say to Dylan and Eric if we could go back to the day before the Columbine Massacre, Manson said he would say nothing. “I would listen…which is what nobody did.”]

Probably the most cynical and dishonest thing Moore did in making his argument against guns, was the back slap he laid on the Framers. Moore chose James Nichols, the moron brother of Oklahoma bomber Terry Nichols, to be the voice of the Framers. It is Nichols who tries to quote John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, who argued correctly that a free people have a right to revolution against an unjust government. With a lot of help from the moron, himself, Michael Moore successfully renders anything coming out of James Nichols’ mouth idiocy. And that’s it! That’s the only time during the entire movie the intent of the Framers is discussed. People leave Moore’s film thinking America is the land of the blood-thirsty depraved and that guns are the principle cause for all the violence.

Our right to bear arms has nothing to do with crime fighting. In a civil society individuals give up the right to apprehend and punish criminals. Protection “from enemies foreign and domestic” is government’s responsibility. Government has a monopoly on the use of force. Self-defense is the only exception to this rule. That means, if somebody is getting ready to kill you, you can stop them with lethal force; however, if you come home and find your loved-one slain, you can’t legally go door to door looking for the culprit. You call the police. It’s government’s responsibility to apprehend, try, convict, and punish criminals. Individuals do not have a right to vendetta or vigilante justice. The Second Amendment is not about individuals protecting themselves from criminals.

Because government has a monopoly on the use of force, government is very dangerous. Throughout history the greatest violator of the rights of individuals has been government. The Framers read history. They knew this. They fought a war against an unjust government. They wrote the Second Amendment to insure that such a just revolution may be fought again, if need be. Don’t take my word for it. Here are the words of the Framers.

"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950])

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States" (Noah Webster in `An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution', 1787, a pamphlet aimed at swaying Pennsylvania toward ratification, in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, at 56(New York, 1888))

"...to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380)

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment [I Annals of Congress at 750 {August 17, 1789}])

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

"The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country..." (James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434 [June 8, 1789])