For the sake of argument let’s say that there isn’t an individual right to keep and bear arms. Instead that right is limited to the context of a militia, an argument that is consistently presented in comments responding to RKBA diaries, where does that leave us?
When you get down to the brass tacks of the matter, we would be left with three groups of people being armed, politicians (the state), criminals and the rich. The rest of us would be beholden to and dependent upon the states police force for protection, a police force that has no legal obligation to come to our aid.
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband making an arrest mandatory for a violation.
For hours on the night of June 22, 1999, Jessica Gonzales tried to get the Castle Rock police to find and arrest her estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, who was under a court order to stay 100 yards away from the house. He had taken the children, ages 7, 9 and 10, as they played outside, and he later called his wife to tell her that he had the girls at an amusement park in Denver.
Ms. Gonzales conveyed the information to the police, but they failed to act before Mr. Gonzales arrived at the police station hours later, firing a gun, with the bodies of the girls in the back of his truck. The police killed him at the scene.
For the next fourteen hours the captive women were raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon one another, and made to submit to the sexual demands of Kent and Morse.
The court stated that official police personnel and the government employing them owe no duty to victims of criminal acts and thus are not liable for a failure to provide adequate police protection unless a special relationship exists.
Are we willing to abdicate responsibility for our safety and leave it to the “proper authorities”? Authorities that can’t protect us, authorities that have no duty to protect us and authorities that can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to respond to our 911 calls for help? I for one am neither interested nor willing to give up my duty and responsibility to protect myself.
Without an individual right to keep and bear arms we are also left with the state having a monopoly on the use of force. A state that interned tens of thousands of citizens to war relocation camps, a state that has killed college students, a state that uses pepper spray on peaceful protesters, a state whose police force is becoming more and more militarized, a state that can conduct warrantless wiretaps and no knock raids, a state that has the power to indefinitely detain its citizens and a state that can assassinate Americans abroad without making public the evidence or the legal rationale.
I reject the notion that we don't have an individual right to keep and bear arms. I find the concept that the police are there to protect me as distasteful and naive. And I find it disturbing that any Democrat would actually be in favour of the state having a monopoly on the use of force. We the people need to retain as much individual power as we can because once the state claims a power as its own, it seldom gives it up.
Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a DKos group of second amendment supporters who also have progressive and liberal values. We don't think that being a liberal means one has to be anti-gun. Some of us are extreme in our second amendment views (no licensing, no restrictions on small arms) and some of us are more moderate (licensing, restrictions on small arms.) Moderate or extreme or somewhere in between, we hold one common belief: more gun control equals lost elections. We don't want a repeat of 1994. We are an inclusive group: if you see the Second Amendment as safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms individually, then come join us in our conversation. If you are against the right to keep and bear arms, come join our conversation. We look forward to seeing you, as long as you engage in a civil discussion. If you're just here to disrupt or troll, expect to get a Do Not Respond (DNR) comment and then be ignored. Insults, lies, and willful ignorance will be dealt with by normal community moderation. Disagreement by itself is not considered trolling.
As always, if you're interested in joining RKBA, message
KVoimakas.