Guns and Tyranny

In a previous post, I talked about the issue of scope in the 2nd Amendment.  Here, to celebrate Bill of Rights Day, is something about why that Amendment is thought to be important.

     A common argument in defense of the 2nd Amendment is rooted in the claim that firearms in private hands protect us from the danger of a tyrannical government.  This argument at least has the virtue of being historically grounded; the founders certainly thought that a well-armed (and well-trained and disciplined, i.e., well-regulated) citizenry was a hedge against tyranny.  And they are very clear in their writings that this is why the 2nd Amendment is important.  But this argument just doesn’t hold water anymore.

     To begin with, a well-armed citizenry, even one as well-armed as ours, is simply no match for the modern US army.  The founders believed that an armed citizenry was a hedge against tyranny primarily because it undercut the need for a standing army.  But the Constitution gave the federal government the power to raise and maintain an army (Article 1, Section 8) with only the restriction that the funds to maintain it had to be reauthorized every two years.  And we now have a military establishment that is, by some accounts, larger than that of all other countries in the world combined.  Given the destructive power of its weapons, the effectiveness of its communications, and the penetration of its intelligence gathering into virtually every aspect of life, the armed citizenry poses little or no threat to a determined tyrant.

     And this brings us to a very important point:  it looks very much like we already live in a tyrannical state.  Our police are armed with military grade weapons and equipment, and they are trained in military tactics, often by active-duty members of the military.  They routinely deploy these weapons and tactics against US citizens; data indicate that there are 50,000 SWAT raids every year, most of them to serve warrants for nonviolent crimes.  The NSA and other intelligence gathering agencies monitor all our communications, financial transactions, travel, associations, and so forth; they know more about us than we know about ourselves.  Our last two presidential administrations have publicly claimed extraordinary powers to imprison, torture, and kill US citizens without any sort of judicial review.  And all those guns in private hands didn’t stop any of this; they didn’t even slow it down.

     And now, of course, we have on deck what looks very much like a tyrannical government.  And it was installed by many of the same people who are so adamant about the importance of the 2nd Amendment.  Ain’t life strange?

     What is to be done?  I would suggest that anyone who really wants to do something to help resist tyranny should sell all their guns, buy the most sophisticated computer they can afford, and learn to code.  Guns are no longer the primary tools of oppression in developed countries like the US, and thus they are no longer the primary defense.  If I may indulge in a bit of snark, Anonymous and people like Assange and Snowden, however impure their motives, are doing much more to resist tyranny than a bunch of idiots trashing a bird sanctuary in the middle of nowhere.