Watch out, its the tyranny police

I just read something on facebook that got my attention.  The premise was that the second amendment is about allowing people to wield power as individuals within a collective.  That just as individuals voting responsibly keeps the collective healthy, individuals wielding firearms (whether as a peace-keeping citizen or a member of the military) responsibly helps maintain a proper balance of power within the collective.

In his article, Kevin Yuill at least points out the fact that most people tend to ignore which is that there are quite a few powerful people who really would like to repeal or change the 2nd amendment but of course they realize this is impossible given that the majority of Americans would not support it.  Because of this impossibility, the drive is for gun control whether through Congressional measures or by executive order or both.  But Yuill's argument is that the 2nd amendment is not about who can or can't bear arms but is aimed at preventing the "tyranny of the seizure of weapons."

In a literal sense, he is correct.  The amendment states that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."  And if the state or federal government decided that they should take guns away from people or tried to prevent certain people from having them, that would be a tyrannical action.

But what about the tyranny of gun owners and wielders that is carried out against Americans every day?  Anyone taking someone else's life with a gun is certainly practicing tyranny.  I think it is fair to extend that to the idea that simply living in a country with so many guns means that I or my family are more likely to be killed by someone with a gun than in many other civilized countries.  I think Yuill and others that use the tyranny argument want to make it clear that only a government or group of lawmakers or even an individual like the president are being tyrannical in suggesting controls on who can own guns.

But he's wrong.  There's plenty of tyranny to go around.

If you as an individual decide that you want to have fewer restrictions on who can have what kinds of guns and where they can carry them, you are in favor of a tyranny that is visited upon those who would like to go to the park or into a school under the assumption that no one is carrying firearms.

Of course "bad people" or "sick people" may break those rules and you can argue that the tyranny of the sick or bad can only be stopped by the tyranny of the responsible gun owner.  You can argue that the rules shouldn't be decided by the tyranny of the ignorant who don't know the difference between an AR-15 or an H&K-5 or even a .40 S&W.

But I'd appreciate it if we could stop pretending that tyranny is something only the government can wield.  When you walk around carrying a gun and most other people around you don't have one, you are capable of more tyranny than many of those people put together.  When you have a gun in your home, particularly if it isn't locked up and stored securely, you can even be a victim to the tyranny of the accidental or the stupid.

So while we are standing up for our rights and protesting against tyranny, real or just possible, I just want to make sure there is a space for me to do the same.

(And I am super curious how many guns I'd have to mention and link to within a blog post to make an adsense thing pop up advertising a gun store or particular weapon.  Apparently this wasn't enough, maybe next time!)