What's this right to bear arms?

What's all this stuff about the Right to Bear Arms?

Well, it's the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. You'll notice it's the Second Amendment, not the twenty-fourth or something. It's the second most important thing they could think of. Why?

To understand why, you need to understand where the Founding Fathers were and where they came from. The oldest game in the world is the old "I'm the King" game. How does that work? Well, first you get together a gang of thugs and arm them to the teeth. Then you tell everyone that these thugs are your "Police" or "Knights" or something that sounds benign. Then you tell everyone that you and these thugs are going to protect them. All good so far. But you are a small minority. If you start exploiting the people, they may rise up and get rid of you. So, you tell them that for their own protection you're outlawing weapons. You tell them that this will make them safe because now nobody will have weapons to threaten them with.

If you believe that, you're not thinking very clearly. If you were an outlaw and were going to rob and kill people, would you worry if the weapons you were using to do it with were outlawed? Isn't robbing and killing outlawed?

So now you, the "King", or one of his "Lords", have an organized gang of loyal thugs who can go about armed and oppress the population. The disorganized population can't even get started organizing to resist this oppression because the thugs stomp on them right away if they do.

Our Founding Fathers came from Europe where they had Feudalism, which is the system I've described above. It was clear to them that the only thing standing between them and Feudalism was the fact that they outnumbered and outgunned any King or Lord who might try to oppress them. Remember the American Revolution? It was a revolt against the English King who before that time ruled America.

Do you remember what the English King did? He sent the Redcoats to suppress the Revolutionaries. Who were the Revolutionaries? The Minutemen. Who were they? The people, the ordinary people armed with their own weapons. What happened? The people outgunned the Redcoats, and became free. And they wanted to stay free. So they wrote the Constitution of the United States, and in it the Second Amendment.

So what does the Second Amendment say? It is quoted below.

Amendment II

"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."

So how do we interpret this? You'd be amazed at what people have tried to do with this statement.

The first clause is the Why clause. It tells why the Amendment is included.

The Militia referred to is the "Gang of Thugs" I have mentioned above. The organized armed body who keep and enforce the peace and the law. If they are "well regulated" they do their proper job. It means if they are kept under control. If they are not well regulated, they run around serving themselves at the expense of the people. Now you will notice that it says "... being necessary to the security of a free State, ..." The inclusion of the word "free" is important, because in a State that's not free, the Militia is already out of control. Our Founding Fathers didn't want America to ever cease to be a free State.

Now we get to the actual What clause.

What does the Amendment provide? It says " ... the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The "people" means the common people, the citizenry, not any body wielding authority. The Constitution begins with the words, "We the People of the United States..." The People means the whole of the people, the citizenry who agree to govern themselves. "Of the People, by the People and for the People." It doesn't mean the Militia, or the Congress, or the Police Force. It means all the people of the country. It means that today, and it meant that then.

Why do I hammer this definition? Because believe it or not, those who would control us have tried to interpret the Second Amendment as meaning that the right of the Militia to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Where does that leave us? Right in their pocket just like in the good old days of Kings and Feudalism. They own us and they can enforce it and we can do nothing.

Now the Founding Fathers had no way of knowing that America would develop into a society where the Law had been taken completely away from the People. The Law in our time is the private preserve of guess who? That's right lawyers. In our time, nothing important would ever be written like the Second Amendment was. It would be written in the exhaustive boilerplate language of the attorney. So assuming that my interpretation of the intent of the Second Amendment is correct, what would it say if it were written today. I'll just make an attempt at it below.

Amendment II

"In recognition of the prevalence of tyranny and oppression in human government throughout the ages, it is the intent of this Amendment that at present and at all times in the future, the People shall possess greater armed might than any organized Militia, Police Force, the Armed Forces of the Nation, or any other body concerned with government. To this end, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

For the purposes of this Amendment, the term "the People" shall mean all the citizens of the United States of America. Exceptions may be made for any citizen who has been duly convicted of a Felonious Crime of Violence.

For the purpose of this Amendment, the term "keep" shall mean to own and have in possession as private property free of restriction.

For the purpose of this Amendment, the term "bear" shall mean to carry or transport in any public place without any restriction as to reason or purpose. A citizen may thus be armed and not be subject to inquiry or detainment by any person in authority solely by reason of being armed.

For the purpose of this Amendment, the term "arms", shall mean arms equivalent to, at every time in the present and the future as arms shall change and improve, those arms issued to a common infantry soldier of the Army of the United States of America or those borne by a common infantry soldier of an Army of the Day. Any arms less in destructive power, or of earlier design and development than such arms, shall also be included. In addition the term "arms" shall include everything necessary for the normal use of such arms, specifically including but not limited to ammunition used in firearms. Any law restricting the possession or disposition of any part of an "arm" so as to render such an "arm" inoperable shall be deemed in violation of this Amendment.

It is specifically the intent of this Amendment that the arms kept and borne by the People shall confer on the People greater armed might than any organized Militia, Police Force, the Armed Forces of the Nation, or any other body concerned with government so that such body may not be capable of enforcing it's will upon the People by force."

I'm no lawyer, but you can see my point. Nowadays you have to nail down each word used in a legal document that could possibly be interpreted to derail the intent of the document. But still, despite the weaknesses of the language of the Second Amendment in our legal terms, the incontrovertible statement remains. "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Considering the very first words of the Constitution, "We the People.....", it can never be credibly asserted that the right to keep and bear arms is not a right granted to all the individual citizens of the country.

So, those who would disarm the American People have taken a second approach. They have begun to ban certain classes of weapons. They are using the old trick of manipulating words. Suddenly the term Assault Rifle is heard throughout the news media. Oh yes, we think, Assault Rifles are bad. But what is an assault rifle? Well it's what the police and military use. It's a semiautomatic rifle with a large magazine suitable for use in a modern firefight. Little by little they hope to restrict the People to ineffective weapons. Then their desire is accomplished despite the incontrovertible clause in the Second Amendment.

But, this is not the end of their efforts. Just try to actually bear arms virtually anywhere. Strap on your pistol and go out for a stroll. The first policeman who sees you is going to stomp on his brakes and jump out of his car with his shotgun at the ready. Then he's going to waste about two days of your time taking you in and holding you for questioning. In the end, you will be released, because you are entirely within your rights. But this harassment is effective at intimidating virtually everyone to voluntarily give up their right to bear arms.

But there's more. Virtually anywhere you go there's an ordinance forbidding a firearm to be loaded. Well, isn't that logical? We don't want you to shoot anyone. You can just use your gun as a club if you have to defend yourself, right?

Buy a gun. Learn how to use it. Keep it in your closet with ammunition. Keep it locked so your children can't hurt themselves. Be a Minuteman (or woman). The time of the Minutemen isn't over. It never will be.

Oh but all this is irrelevant, you might say. It would never come to the People against the Government.

It already has numerous times in America. There have been numerous cases where the People have risen up and protested and resisted things the Legislatures have tried to do. And why didn't the Legislatures just send the police to crush these protests like they would certainly have done in Baghdad? Believe it or not they knew that if they got heavy handed enough it would come to violence, and they knew the numbers.

What are the numbers? Well let's just do one of my quickie estimates and see if even with the uncertainty of the result we don't see that it's clear where the numbers lie. Lets say that of the 300,000,000 citizens we have, one quarter are male adults. That's conservative enough. Let's say that of these half actually keep arms of some kind. That's also conservative and doesn't account for women who keep arms. How many armed citizens are we talking about? One eighth of three hundred million. Three million, seven hundred and fifty thousand. It could easily be twice that. If it came to a scuffle, most of the people who keep arms keep more than one weapon and could arm their neighbors. It could easily be twenty million if push came to shove. And a large part of those armed citizens are hunters. Hunters are the same thing as snipers in military terms. These hunters have accurate rifles with telescopic sights that can hit a tin can at two hundred yards or more. The Internet tells me that there are nearly 200,000,000 privately owned guns in america. So how does this compare with the world's military?

Let's look at what my trusty World Almanac says.

The entire United States military ------------------------- 1,371,500
The entire Chinese military -------------------------------- 2,820,000
The entire Indian military ---------------------------------- 1,173,000
The entire North Korean military ------------------------- 1,055,000
The entire Russian military -------------------------------- 1,004,100
The five biggest militaries in the world combined ----- 7,423,600

Chances are that the American People outgun them. We the People outgun the five biggest armies in the world combined. If every gun in America were distributed to citizens, they would outgun these five armies by 27 to 1. What does that mean? It means that to subjugate the American People by force is virtually impossible. Take away the guns and what do you have?

But all this is theoretical isn't it? It's never going to come to that. Our nuclear arsenal is theoretical isn't it? Are we going to use it? Not likely. Does it give us security? That's why we have it isn't it? Nobody is going to invade America, because they know that if they did, nukes would rain down on their country within fifteen minutes. Is the Second Amendment worthwhile?

But what about all these criminals shooting people? If you think that gun control legislation has reduced the number of illegal guns in the hands of criminals you're living on a cloud. Note the words "illegal guns". They're criminals remember? They can get guns smuggled here from Afghanistan if they have to. And they will.

What does this have to do with my writing? Everything. In the novel "Ice: Volume I, Escape from North America" there are two groups of survivors, The Tribe and The Federals. The Tribe are the descendants of private citizens who were prepared for the volcanic disaster. The Federals are the descendants of a group of military personnel chosen by the Federal Government to survive. The Federals evolved into a totalitarian society. The Tribe is a communal society based in personal honor. The Federals are determined to bring The Tribe under their Martial Law, or exterminate them. Totalitarians fear freedom.

Tommy Atkinson

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