A reminder of the importance of the second amendment

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The experts all agrea (hitler, stalin, mau, castro) gun control works. A discussion in another thread lead me to posting this. I also posted this in another section as a response but I feel it is an important and greatly misunderstood issue that needs to be understood. Why is it people in governments are so eager to disarm the populus or at least greatly reduce the number of amred citizens and their firepower capabilities? Is it because they are kind hearted people who are tired of gun accidents and gun crime? Look me in the eye and tell me you honestly believe that and if you can, than you have been, in the words of bart simpson "been sold another load from the worlds biggest fertilizer salesmen". To truly answer that question, lets look at the second amendment, lets look at what the text actually reads: "A well regulated militia being nessesary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" This is not by any stretch an outdated notion. Why did the founders include this amanement? What is it's actual function? To answer that, lets first look at what a "militia" is. It is not the national guard, the national guard wasn't even around when this amendment was written. Documnents through out U.S. history and even today, many state constitutions defifine the militia simply as "the people". The founders knew well and understood the fallibility and greed of men who attained power. They knew that a government could easily by ignorance, incompetence or outright corruption, could easily become tyranical. They also, in laying out the constitution, charged us, the people as the ultimate guards of it and the preservation of liberty and protection against tyrany, foriegn or domestic, even God forbid, our own governments. Many in power here and abroad know full well that a well armed population has physical backing to the defense of their liberties. Most everywhere you look in the world, a systematic disarming of the population has always been followed by the losses of liberty, even in so called democratic nations such as Great Brittan in recent years. The new Hampshire state contitution (for one example) States in article 10, [i] "[Art.] 10. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind." [/i] the declaration of independence, in several places states: [i] "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...." [/i] and [i] "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security" [/i] This is the core of the right to bear arms in the United States. the right of a people to defend the constitution and it's principals in times of dire usurption. Is this really a risk you want to take? giving up that final line of defense against tyrany? Militia's through out history have been utilized in the defense of liberty and personal saftey, perticularly in times when standard defenses such as law enforcement has not. FOr example, in the Late 40's it was an armed citizen militia that over threw a corrupt and racist county government in Athens Tennesee. In the late 80's durring the Los Angelos Rodney King riots, armed citizen militias assisted and worked along side the national guard in protecting neighborhoods (though you won't fond any main stream media stories relating that). those are but two examples. One may argue "but we have the police and government forces to protect against these things". Well, what happens when it is thse entities that threaten liberty or safety? Or when they are stretched beyond effective limits, such as in the border areas of the south? Is the government really the one you want to rely on to defend your liberty as a last line of defense? With all the corruption and power hungry elements in the government and the simple fact that "absolute power corrupts absolutely" is this prone to corruption entity realy what you want to depend on as your last hope? Everyone, whether you own a gun or not, whether you like the idea of guns or not, should at least take a few minutes and do some soul searching, This is far more than just the right to hunt or defend one's property, it is the right to defend one's liberty, the right given by our founders, the duty and responsibility [/i] bestowed on us by our founders. We ignore and trivialize this at our peril and the peril of everything this nation was founded on.