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hellbender wrote (edited )

I don't own a gun. I intentionally live in a slightly rural area not far from a larger urban area and am in demographically well-off surroundings, and also am perceptive enough of threats (famous last words) that I feel safe. If things were different, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one and practice using it.

The American founding fathers clearly were concerned about the ability of government to become tyrannical which is the underlying basis for gun ownership here. And obviously this has been hijacked by the NRA and right-wing ideologies and is being used to rally support from a significant fraction of our society. But the idea that an armed militia could succeed here has become complete folly. Any government sufficiently tyrannical, as ours is steadily becoming, can and already has completely quashed any capability of a mass uprising by citizens. Which can be clearly seen by the increasing use of military-grade weapons and vehicles and tactics used by our police forces.

The second amendment is, in a word, shot. Honestly, the thinking behind it was extremely short-sighted, and could easily have been improved by also limiting the use and types of weapons by government against its own citizens. The only hope for addressing or stopping tyranny here now would be intervention by a sympathetic and balanced military. We have some good people in our military, and now that Cheney and Rumsfeld are bygones, there is some hope that could happen.

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