Not a popular thought but IMO THIS is why 2A is so important

[Gouranga]

Libyan Government forces open fire on anti-government protesters
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41689225/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

I hope and pray that the deterrent is enough that this will never ever happen in the US (yeah I know about Kent State). However, IMO, the 1A is nothing without the2A to back it up. When a government and it's supporters become the only armed side, this is exactly what you can expect to happen.

I have brought this point up to anti-2A folks and they call it treason but IMO, a government opening fire on peaceful protesters, is an act of treason by that government and there is only 1 response at that time.

In this country, the government knows going out shooting at protesters would result in some serious things occurring with an armed populace. Nobody every thinks this can happen until they are looking at government officials pointing guns at them. Nobody thought Katrina could happen (even me) until it did and I was just dumbfounded to think it could happen in the US.

 

[Tommygunn]

Research "Bonus Marchers" and find out what the govt. did to them pre WW2 -- including some rather well-known military figures. Happened under the Hoover Administration IIRC, 'round 1931-2.

 

[Gouranga]

Very interesting. I honestly never heard of that before. Now imagine though, is the government put the US Army in the capitol and just had them flat out open fire on thousands of protesters and did so not only in the capitol but all over the nation.

I would seriously hope and doubt the government would never do that to its people and that the US Army would refuse those unlawful orders, but unlike Libya if the government waged war on the people, the ONLY real defense we have is the 2A now.

I guess it is a weird thing for me cause growing up in NY I NEVER once was ever taught anything about the need for an armed populace to keep the governments power in check to prevent tyranny like the type we faced when we were under British rule.

Now no government is ever perfect and there never will be one that is but ours, IMO, is pretty darned close most days and I really think that having an armed populace has helped keep up that way.

Also, when wars occur and the draft is needed, it helps to have large swaths of the population that know how to handle a rifle. Should we ever be invaded again, once again, that occupying force is going to have their hands full and the US armed forces will have ample supply of patriots to call on for a guerrilla war.

 

[CZsp01]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwnUQcKXmMM&skipcontrinter=1

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

it helps to have large swaths of the population that know how to handle a rifle.

I think that is the premise of the Appleseed project.

 

[GEM]

We were closer than you might think at Kent State. While this might be BS, there were guard units that were made of college students. One had an officer that was all charged up that he might get a chancet to shoot at some of those hippie college kids. His unit told him that if he gave that order, he might get a surprise and a hole in him. I heard this from a young man in the unit.

When there is a civil revolt, it is crucial as to whether the armed forces units will act against a local group. Usually units from away from the area are imported. This happened in China during the Tienamen square incidents.

As far as an organized invasion of the USA by a foreign country - unless it is like the upcoming Battle for LA alien attack - I won't lose sleep over it. The logisitics are impossible nor do the forces exist overseas in any reasonable or non-tin-foil scenario.

 

[230therapy]

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security."

Thomas Jefferson


Here's a podcast that discusses the quote:

http://archives.davechampionshow.com/Champion_1_021711.mp3

 

[Apuuli]

Also, when wars occur and the draft is needed, it helps to have large swaths of the population that know how to handle a rifle.

England had a similar idea in the late Middle Ages/Renaissance. Most men could no longer handle a longbow with any proficiency so the government enacted laws to encourage and require men of a certain age to practice.

 

[One-Time]

anyone who cannot grasp the true intent of the 2A, the very reason it exists amongst others is lost and blind

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

We like to think we are a lot more civilized than we are. Public corruption and abuses of power, bureaucracies and elected officials that answer to no one, and potential violent crime from any direction tells me we ain't. Many good reasons for a 2nd Amendment today, just as much as when it was drafted.

 

[Owen Sparks]

Apparently seven times more people were murdered by their own governments in the
20th century than were killed in all the wars combined. The only thing that is sure to stop democide is private ownership of modern weapons. Don't believe it? Click on the link to read more:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/bowman3.html

 

[HBrebel]

hopefully the oathkeepers stay true to the oath.

 

[oneounceload]

WOW - mentioning insurrection here and it immediately gets closed down due to insurrection being "against the laws of the land"

revolution is good thing now and again -it keeps things edgy

 

[Owen Sparks]

The "law" is whatever the group in power says it is. Right now it is not in the best interest of that group to "interprit" the 2A as meaning what it says.

 

[merlinfire]

There's a difference in talking hypotheticals in other countries and actively plotting insurrection. As I've said in other places (other forums, where I witnessed open plotting of insurrection right after the 2008 election), things would have to be a lot worse before that sort of talk would be anything other than being a bad loser.

We'll see. I doubt it gets that bad before I'm too old to make a difference, and hopefully after my grandchildren are too old as well.

 

[duns]

Police shoot peaceful protesters in Bahrain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RCBOC-MAM. It is claimed http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/bahrain that the number of guns held by civilians in Bahrain is 180,000 and by police 12,600. If this is true, then an armed populace by itself would not appear to be much of a deterrent to government oppression such as shooting at protesters.

 

[bobbarker]

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
-Declaration of Independence

It's not treason if the government has become "Destructive to these ends." I doubt it would ever come to that point in the U.S., but that is the point of the Second Amendment, to ensure it doesn't get to that point, and to be able to respond if it did.