In the midst of the gun debate, we tend to focus on two time periods. One is, obviously, the time when the Second and the Fourteenth Amendments were ratified. Under the Bruen doctrine, this is important as it gives us an idea of what those who ratified saw as just infringements on our gun rights. Looking there makes sense.
But the other time period is here and now. It's not even really what's happening, but the perception of what's happening.
Gun control advocates tell us that the Second Amendment is antiquated, that it's a relic from another time, and that the present day needs mean we shouldn't be beholden to the ideas of the late 18th century on whether people should have guns. After all, that was a time of muskets--no, it wasn't, but we've addressed that before.
When we tell them that the Second Amendment is the Founding Fathers' insurance policy that we would be able to resist a tyrannical government, they scoff.
Some because they can't fathom how regular people armed with things they got at the local gun store could fight back against advanced jet fighters, but some because they can't imagine the United States ever becoming that tyrannical.
Yes, these are often the same people who attended No Kings protests, but internal intellectual consistency isn't exactly high on their list of personal priorities.
Still, they maintain this idea that we don't need to worry about tyranny in the future. We need to take action today because what they see around them is ample reason to restrict gun rights by banning certain models of firearms and creating burdens in obtaining the rest.
It's an incredibly myopic view.
I've spent a lot of time recently pondering "what if" scenarios based on what we see around us, and there are plenty of cases where it turns out we're just being alarmists. However, there are also plenty of scenarios I've pondered where everything goes to crap, and not just because of domestically grown tyranny.
Right now, we're the most powerful nation in the history of mankind. We're the behemoth in the world, and not everyone likes that. Some don't like things we've done in the past, and not without some reason, while others simply resent that they can't force their religion and way of life onto the rest of humanity because they know they'd be bombed back to the Stone Age.
Every empire falls.
The Romans held vast territory for centuries, but now Rome is just a city in Italy. The Mongols held the greatest empire the world has ever seen, but it didn't survive past Genghis Khan. The Ottoman Empire lasted a good long while, but all that's left is a Turkey that is little more than a regional power at best.
To say we will remain at the top of the heap is to ignore the long history of others who thought they were, only to suffer a fall that would make Humpty Dumpty cringe.
Should that day come, what will protect us from the next power, which may not be as nice? America has vast resources. It's what helped us in World War II and the aftermath. It's part of why we became a superpower, but it's also why we'd be attractive to someone else, someone without our ethics about taking over new territory.
If the anti-gunners get their way today, then our descendants in that (hopefully) faraway time will find themselves defenseless. The military, a shadow of what it is today, won't be enough to stop whatever nation's war machine decides to roll through the heartland of America.
But if we prevail in this debate, if the Constitution and our resolve stand firm, should that unfortunate time come about, then those descendants won't be defenseless. Those AR-15s or whatever the current thing is will come out of the gun safes of America and go to war. There won't be a single safe place for the invader to rest, much less to bury their dead.
Admiral Yamamoto was said to have argued that invading America was folly because "there will be a rifle behind every blade of grass." There's no evidence he actually said it, but the sentiment isn't wrong.
Protecting the Second Amendment here and now is important because we trust our gun rights to be there, so we can protect our families from the dangers of today. Yet it's not just about that.
It's about making sure generations untold have the means to protect themselves from the dangers of that day as well.
The worst may never come. I pray for every American, alive and unborn, that it never happens.
But if it does, I pray for every American, alive and unborn, that rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf with the guns of their day, the determination to be free, and the will to see it through.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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