The Right to Bear Arms: The History, and Why It’s Necessary.

The title of this article can spark a wide variety of responses among readers. Some might think that the right to bear arms is absolutely essential for every American, and should remain unrestricted by the government. Other people may think it’s unsafe and reckless to have the average Joe Schmoe with his Jane Doe from Idaho carrying around a loaded Glock with a box of ammo. Both sides are very passionate about their arguments, and the general mayhem the debate causes makes it difficult to have a reasonable discussion™. But here I am, ready to weigh in on a highly controversial topic with my analysis that no one asked for. Before I get started with the article, I feel it necessary to come forth with my own bias.

In case you’re a normal person that’s stumbled upon this publication, The Kommando Blog is a site that stemmed from a weapons board on The Four Chan Dot Com. A large portion of our team comes from this board and has contributed to discussions on, oftentimes their own, firearms. So as you can imagine, the overwhelming majority of us are pro-gun, and against gun control as a whole (keep in mind: that board is not for discussing gun control, just the weapons themselves). I’m one of the few contributors who aren’t a part of that group; however, I’ve been around guns quite a bit throughout my life, and I’ve come to like them. I’m just about as pro-gun as they come, and maybe after reading this, you will be too. All that being said, onto the article.

Historical Context

The Second Amendment was put into place on the 15th of December, 1791, eight years after the end of the American Revolutionary War. The American Revolution was sparked by a number of things, with one of the most famous reasons being the heavy taxation (by the standards of the time) of various goods by the British government. The phrase “taxation without representation is tyranny” by James Otis, represented the desire of the people to have a say in government. Anti-tax protests began, a war happened, and a new experiment in government was born.

The founding fathers, after fighting a long and bloody war against a large empire, wished to keep a smaller influence of government on the lives of the American people. James Madison describes this in an open letter to the people of New York:

In the first place, it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any. 

I encourage you to read the entire text for full context, but this quote shows their desire for a government with strict limits on its power. The government they founded was with the interests of the people first, but they feared that it would one day become tyrannical. Thus, they created what would be known as The Bill of Rights, which documented the basic “unalienable” rights for each American.  These rights were thought to be given by God, and not to be taken away by anyone.  In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson describes these rights as such:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Second Amendment

Among the Bill of Rights, was the Second Amendment, which stated:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Second Amendment was not created for self-defense, it was not created so you and your buddies could go out, drink a few beers, and shoot some guns (those were just nice side effects). It was created as a way for the people to be able to defend themselves against a tyrannical government. It can even be argued that the guerrilla tactics used by the self-armed colonists during the Revolutionary War, was what pushed the odds in the Revolution’s favor, proving its effectiveness.

The point of the Second Amendment is related to the entire focus of this new government, to protect the interests of the people first and foremost. It is willing to allow it’s citizens to bear arms and take up said arms against the government, in order to prevent them from living under a tyrannical rule.

Beware, the opinion portion of the article is imminent.

Why It’s Necessary

I’ve debated many people who are in favor of more gun control, and the overwhelming majority of them are not aware of the true intentions of the Second Amendment as I’ve explained them here. However, some of those that I’ve argued with are very aware of the reasoning behind the document. For these people, the most common argument is something along the lines of “the government isn’t going to turn against us you paranoid nutcase”.

It genuinely boggles my mind how people can’t fathom that the government might turn against them. It’s happened before in examples such as, but not limited to: The Holocaust, the entirety of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, the Armenian Genocide, the Great Leap Forward, etc. Even if you don’t like guns, isn’t it important to have them as a way to defend yourself from the giant, soulless entity that shoots you in the face if you don’t do what it wants? In my view, it’s better to have a way to fight back, than to just pray that the government won’t turn against us.

Before I go, one sarcastic statement I always get from people who argue against my point is, “Okay, if you think we should have the means to fight back against the government, then I guess you think we should have the right to own tanks, eh?”

Yes.

Footnotes and Recommendations

Some of you might have realized that the show Louder With Crowder has partly inspired this article. I didn’t cover every argument against gun control, only the one that irritated me the most, and was the closest in relation to the “historical context” section. I recommend you watch Crowder’s videos if you want to bring up points such as the 2nd Amendment was only meant for muskets, or that our current methods of gun control are not indicative of a “well-regulated militia”. You should check out some of his other videos on firearms as well, such as the one on “The Gun Show Loophole”.

If you’re more into the home defense purposes of a gun, then I recommend you read an article by The Art of Manliness. It details which guns are best for home defense, as well as training on how to properly use them.