Now consider that any kid who gets in a knuckle duster in grade school will be branded as having "anger issues" and "violent tendencies", and they will be doomed to not only disarmament, but a lifetime of 'counseling' as well. Between maintenance medication (happy pills and the like) and the whim of people I have seen be far less than objective, especially in their assessments of boys and young men, those who are allowed to exercise that Right will be few and far enough between to completely negate any check on the tendencies of Governments to become more totalitarian.
That's right. I fought that hard for both my sons.
Elder son (the cop) got into tussles pretty well once a month, one time, having kicked the crap out of most of the football team. Another time, he got in a pinch for knockin a guy out that was slappin on his girlfriend. My boy stepped in and put him on the ground, doin the chicken, with one punch.
For a while there, I was in the principals office almost as much as I was in church. And every one of em were cases of self defense or defense of others.
My other boy was diagnosed by the school shrink as being some sort of ADD, and meds were automatically imposed... Because of my elder son's shenanigans, my ex was all for dopin the boy up... In fact, that was probably the catalyst that caused my divorce. I would not have any of that. He wound up quitting school, with three months to go... Either take the dope or get out... He got out.
Now he's head of IT in a regional headquarters for a multi-national corp... At twenty five years old.
There ain't a dang thing wrong with that boy.