Uncle Samson wrote:
ienjoyracing wrote:.
I appreciate your tone and the respectful and thoughtful way you have written.
I do disagree and hope you will indulge me on this.
In 1775, when the Revolutionary War began, the British clearly had the best military in the World. They ruled the seas, which was essential to military battles and to trade.
The British soldiers outnumbered the Americans in North America something like 72,000 to 20,000. They were a professional military, with far more weapons and the latest weapons technology.
The Americans were vastly:
-Outnumbered
-Outgunned
-Outfunded
-Outtrained
and the British had the best technology, were far better organized, had more experience, controlled the seas and thus all shipping, and had the benefit of being centralized and unified.
The Americans were a ragtag group of citizens, with their own personal small arms and equipment, from different colonies across North America. They were farmers, shop owners, blacksmiths, etc.
So if there is no way a group of citizens can stand against an organized and far better equipped government force, then how are we here today as the United States? Our story of creation and existence is exactly that story.
Move forward...after World War II the United States emerged as the most powerful nation on earth. Militarily and economically there had never been a nation as powerful ever. We had the largest military, the most advanced weapons, the most money to spend on the military, etc.
So what happened in Korea? What happened in Vietnam? Those were third world ragtag places that didn't have even a fraction of our military ability in any way. Small populations, greatly lacking in resources, training, experience, funding, numbers, technology, etc. Yet, we could not win in either war, despite pouring manpower, wealth, resources into both conflicts.
The Soviet Union rose to be the second biggest super power. They went to war with Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. They too vastly outnumbered the Afghani military. Had far better technology (the Afghan's didn't have any air force), far more resources, more training, more organization, etc. For 10 years the USSR tried to conquer Afghanistan at an outrageous cost. The result. Utter failure for the second biggest super power in the world. Vast resources, numbers, technology, training, etc. could not secure victory.
The US has now been in Afghanistan for 20 years ourselves. Think about that, 20 years! We have the most advanced military technology in the history of humanity. We obviously are light years ahead of the Afghanis in every single category, from resources to tech to manpower to organization, to training, and so on. Yet, we have not been able to win and get out of Afghanistan for 20 years and counting.
Those are just a few, albeit dramatic, examples that totally contradict what you wrote.
Please read the post earlier in this thread that discusses this situation, were it to happen, in the US. There is no comparison between the numbers, power, experience, etc. of American citizens should a conflict with the government ever happen. We are vastly stronger in every way than the Koreans, Vietnamese, and Afghanis, much less with the original American Patriots, that all held off and won against Super Powers.
The facts, history and the statistical numbers, tell us that with over 100 million Americans owning a firearm, with the resources, vulnerabilities, experience, etc., that "The People" may actually have the advantage from the start, whether the government currently has tanks and planes and drones or not. Please read the previous post to understand this more.
Your example of a few yahoo's standing with their AR-15's to "protect" a bar is not sufficient. They were in no way "at war". It was an isolated tiny instance of some emotion driven people who didn't have a plan and thought they could make a statement, then fell apart when confronted. They weren't fighting for their lives or true freedom.
Fortunately we have no examples of the scenario we are describing here, other than the Revolutionary War itself. Fortunately, we have not had to defend freedom from within. It is reasonable to suggest that one of the reasons we haven't, is because of the Second Amendment. The hope is that we never ever have to fight for our own freedom in our own country. The Second Amendment does increase the odds that we never have to.
You can say you don't think the government would ever turn tyrannical. You may be right. What if you aren't. I don't think you can reasonably say "well, even if it does, there is nothing we can do".
Regarding using other developed countries as examples that gun control works, because they have gun control and they don't have tyrannical governments. I would counter that by saying that most of the gun control in the western world has been very recent, so we don't have a lot of time to see what happens. I would also say, they aren't tyrannical yet. But what would those people do if those governments decided to become tyrannical. What if another Hitler or Stalin rises up in one of those countries? Again, if you look at history, you see humans do this over and over and over. You cannot say that gun control is effective in those countries because to this moment they haven't had a tyrannical government. Time will tell and if history repeats itself, as it has a habit of doing, it will be too late for those people.
I don't think living in a fantasy of "that would never happen here" is wise. I also don't think it is wise to say "oh well, if it happens, there's nothing we can do." That is also not wise, and historically inaccurate. We exist as a country because our Founding Fathers fought for freedom, and they fought for and won that freedom against every odd you can imagine.