By Regular Guy Guns | Guest Author
Why don’t armed citizens “do something”? Regular Guy Guns argues that defending the Second Amendment starts with peaceful civic action.
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As a gun owner and (likely) Goldwater-Wing Republican, at some point, your dedication to the Second Amendment and right to keep and bear arms will be called into question, and not in the expected way. It won’t be an emotional plea to “give up your guns for the children”. It won’t be to “have a conversation about how many ways we want the State to kill you today”, nor will it be a screaming match about “If you gun nuts will just give up, we can be more like Canada!”.
It’ll be something that seems, on the surface, to be a little more logical. Invariably at some point, a nominally anti-2A person will point to something they think is government overreach, and ask “Hey Second Amendment people, where are you?”
Whether it’s Malcom Kenyatta demanding we attack ICE agents on his behalf, or Mac The Lefty insinuating the same the taunt is very clear and present, in that we trumpet from the rooftops our right to keep and bear arms to resist tyranny, and suddenly, according to them, tyranny is present – and yet here we are just sitting on our rear ends doing nothing!
But, like most things in life, they aren’t seeing the details and the nuance.
They Have The Right To Keep And Bear Arms As Well!
It may surprise some of you, but the Second Amendment has no political or social qualifier. Got a pulse? Check. Got a brain? Check. The Second Amendment acknowledges your right to keep and bear arms. Yes, this goes for people we may disagree with, even those on the left. They can buy an AR-15, they can buy a GLOCK 19, they can fire up that Ender 3D printer and make a gun or three if they want to. That’s the individual right, defined.
This is where you can turn it around on them, oddly enough. Point out that they have the same rights you do. If they push back with the fact that gun control laws may delay or outright deny their ability to arm themselves lawfully, the rebuttal is obvious: elections have consequences. They voted themselves into a strict gun control regime, they can figure it out. A little nudge of “Hey, why are you letting laws stand in the way of your Glorious Revolution” might zing them a little.
On the upside, yes, the upside, this may give them pause to consider just what they are proposing.
The Second Amendment Isn’t A Blank Check To Kill Those You Disagree With
Even outside of this context, the perennial argument in the Second Amendment world has usually been “At what point do we press the trigger?”. And to be fair everyone has their idea of what the red line in the sand is. For some, it’s obvious – a repeal of the Second Amendment and a concerted attempt to confiscate privately-owned firearms. For others it could be an unlawful and uncompensated seizure of their personal property. For some on the left it’s the mere presence of ICE that gets their trigger fingers itchy. For others it could be something more personal, like the motivations of Mangione.
Regardless, the “Second Amendment Nay-Sayers” generally have it wrong. Let’s take the ICE example, and let’s be generous and assume there are concrete examples of abuse by ICE. A few examples of abuse wouldn’t warrant mass violence in response. For better or for worse, the other three boxes of the Four Boxes (soapbox, ballot box, jury box) still can work in our nation. A rogue officer can be taken to task and placed on trial. Peaceable protests can affect policy. An election can shape the operating procedures of a government agency. It can be slow, and it can be frustrating, but the peaceable road, no matter what your issue, is preferable to the violent road.
You can see this on the side of the Second Amendment supporters actually. With deft campaigning, outreach, electoral spending, and persuasion, us on the side of gun rights have made massive strides over the past 22 years. The federal Assault Weapons Ban sunset with little fanfare. The Heller decision affirmed the right to keep and bear arms for self defense. Bruen affirmed the right to bear arms outside of the home. 29 states are now permitless carry.
As a result of Jensen vs ATF, the National Firearms Act of 1934 is optional for certain covered plaintiffs when it comes to silencers, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns. The AR-15 is the most popular rifle platform in the nation, and chances are you own one, and you know plenty of people who do as well. Owning a gun went from something you generally kept to yourself to something you feel comfortable talking about in mixed company.
All of this was accomplished without a firing a shot. It took some time, but massive wins have happened. Apply this nuance to your preferred issue, and perhaps you’ll see the peaceable victory.
Because the alternative is pretty darned grim.
The Next Shot Heard Round The World
Revolutionaries of all stripes are filled with enthusiasm, and often some liquid courage. Late-night sessions around the living room talking about how they are going to “stick it” to their enemies and bring down the entire system. They wish someone would just “try” and give them the excuse to press the trigger. Barring that, they express sentiments of just pressing the trigger and kicking this thing off once and for all.
In fiction, such as Kurt Schlichter’s Kelly Turnbull series, it kind of works out. The good guy gets where he needs to go, dishes out vengeance on the enemies of his movement, has a few laughs along the way, gets the girl, wins, and goes home. On the left, they assume the dust-up will last a few weeks and they can go back to Starbucks, Netflix, and padel as if nothing happened, and those goddamn CHUDs won’t be around to ruin things.
The reality is far less glamorous, and way more brutal.
History proves this. Our own Revolution wasn’t pretty by any stretch. Entire bloodlines eradicated. Starvation, pestilence, mass deaths, and the survivors came out battered, broke, but they found themselves to be the stewards of a new nation. That was the 1700s though, things were simplere.
A current “revolution” would be far more ruthless, dirty, and brutal. Think The Troubles. Think Yugoslavia.
Both situations are telling. Two nominally functional political units (yes, Yugoslavia was communist but Tito made sure the trains ran on time) with the modern conveniences of life. Telephones, electricity, stores, urban areas, the whole bit. When the conflicts kicked off, both areas were rendered into warzones, especially Yugoslavia. Government services were reduced or absent, or if they showed up at all it was probably to brutalize or kill you for being on the “wrong side of things”. The policeman was a Provo with an electric drill, or a track-suited walking stereotype with an AK.
In the modern context it gets hairy, to put it nicely. Just flicking the light switch on would be a coin-toss on whether the lights actually come on.
You may not even want to put the lights on, lest it show your home is inhabited. Netflix? Forget about it. The fiber to your city was cut months ago just out of spite, and the local nerd is jamming Starlink because he didn’t like your “In This House We Believe…” sign. Food certainly will not come from the supermarket. Law enforcement will have collapsed. Your average sunrise will be filtered through a patina of smoldering fires. Entertainment will be a card game and the loser takes the dog watch that night.
Even in areas where the action may not have reached, life will be well, different. You might go out to the store to get some food, but the road is closed due to a bombing this morning. The mayor, whom you may love or hate, might be an object lesson on the side of the road tomorrow.
Your daily routine won’t be just the routine of an armed citizen, it’ll be the routine of someone for whom war is a daily reality. It’ll be a real civil war, i.e. a many-dimensional war between people, not a “War Between The States”. Your friend today is your enemy tomorrow because alliances shift every hour.
And even if “your side” wins, the end result might not be the future you were thinking about when you or your friends pressed the trigger years ago. Yes – years.
Grim, huh? But it needs to be pointed out.
A Peaceable Way Is Desired
Yes, we all have fun on X talking about “getting this dance over with” so we can build our vision of the future from the rubble or whatever. Grant it, it’s an interesting football to kick around, but as we’ve noted, the reality is pretty foreboding and not certain.
The right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to human existence. Your life really isn’t yours unless you can defend it, using all the terrible implements of war, against all threats domestic and foreign. But the right isn’t the first option in an dispute, it’s the last.
Soap box (speech), ballot box (voting), jury box (the courts), ammo box (fighting) – apply in that order, and pray you don’t have to open the last one in anger.
A functional Republic to our spec is best achieved peaceably, but we reserve the right to that last box, if needed.
Thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, children killed before their mothers’ eyes, a grandfather forced to eat the liver of his own grandson. These are truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history – Fouad Riad
Related: Pick Up a Rifle and You Change Instantly From a Subject to a Citizen, by Regular Guy Guns.
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