Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Tyranny And The Right To Bear Arms

Josh Kraushaar at Politco finds the following tweet by Marco Rubio “curious”: “I have a feeling the situation in Iran would be a little different if they had a 2nd amendment like ours,” Rubio tweeted on Sunday.

Kraushaar says he’s “Not sure if Rubio was advocating an armed uprising from the otherwise peaceful protesters…” Um, no, he’s not. It is a simple fact that societies that do not restrict personal gun ownership are also societies that enjoy greater personal freedom. Not surprising, there is a correlation between the ability to protect one’s self from tyranny and not having to protect one’s self from tyranny. So what is it about support for the 2nd amendment that Kraushaar finds curious?

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has it right: Rubio was being glib, of course. (Can you be anything else in 140 characters or less?) However, his meaning was pretty clear, and hardly controversial or “curious”. Supporters of the 2nd Amendment offer these reminders whenever oppression makes itself obvious in the world, to help Americans recall the value of the Bill of Rights and the exceptional place it has in human history

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Irak under Saddam had no gun control legislation. Arms were widely owned among the population, typically AK-47s.

So how does that fit in with your theory that "no gun control == no tyranny"?

Carol said...

I honestly don't know. I have no understanding of why a people who lived under the extreme brutality of Saddam would not raise up. But it doesn't change the fact that the people of Iran have stood up and have taken to the streets and I wish that they had some means to protect themselves.

Tim M. said...

Iraq and Iran are apples and oranges. For one thing, Iraq's not like Switzerland where everyone has a gun - far from it. Secondly, it's amazing the amount of apathy there is among the Iraqi people, unless you're in some kind of power (e.g. Sheik) and have an opportunity to make money.

Clearly, Iranians have the will to fight against tyranny - their only means now is peaceful protest via chanting, and that's now been taken away - you'd better believe that if they were armed, the Basji forces would think more than twice about storming into people's homes.