Try giving the credit to the Constitution. Alone among nations, we have a two-centuries-plus tradition of respecting the peaceful transition of power in accordance with the expressed will of the people. (In the one exception, in 1860, I'll concede that guns certainly played their part - over a half million dead - but the perpetrators were armies, not renegade citizens.)
Oh, I give credit to the Constitution, less so to those sworn to uphold it. It is a government designed for a moral people.
As for peaceful transitions of power, four presidents were assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy), and another six had attempts on their lives. (Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.) Considering there have only been 44 US presidents, that's an almost 10% killed in office rate, and nearly 25% that people tried, successfully or not to assassinate. So much for "peaceful transition of power". English monarchs have a better track record these past 200 years.
Anyone who advocates the overthrow of the Constitution by means of the citizenry brandishing their private arms is an extremist to me.
Me, too. One who would rather use a writ than a rifle is no less an extremist, they just don't like the thought of getting gun oil on their suit. But we aren't talking about the RKBA to
overthrow the Constitution, and that wasn't the Founders' intent, rather
to enforce the Constitution, To protect and defend it when the government would either not do so, or when it refused to abide by that compact. Therein is the protection against tyranny.
One such nut almost shot dead a dozen members of Congress a week and a half ago.
One nut shot one Congressman, one lobbyist, a congressional aide, and two Capitol Hill Police Officers. "Almost" doesn't count, although I will readily acknowledge the outcome could have been different without
armed officers present as part of Rep Scalise's security detail. The only counter to an armed maniac, is arms.
I support the gun right, because it codifies the natural right of personal self defense. That is why is it valuable, that is why it must be preserved. Not all gun owners believe they need guns in order to exercise their political power, to "use" on "perverts" and others with whom they disagree.
Most of us don't see the need to exercise force on those with whom we merely disagree. Come after my family, my person, my stuff, and we have a different situation. A gun might not be necessary: at times a baseball bat would suffice, or a pick handle. You and I know no one in their right mind is out hunting down perverts unless they have a specific beef with a specific pervert, something ideally left to police. But what if the police refuse to pursue the matter, if the person involved is a "somebody" in the local scheme of things? It does happen.
There is the old saying, "If the law won't take care of it, it's just us."
The conditions faced by the Founders are not the conditions of today. I can defend the gun right, but not for the cockamamie notion that guns are our defense against the IRS.
Actually, one of the salient beefs about King George III and the colonial governors was over taxes. "No taxation without representation" was a common complaint.The burning of two tea ships in Annapolis harbor, the Boston Tea Party, the ruckus over Stamp Act, all were disputes over taxation. Even the War between the States was over (to a large degree) taxation. Every war, with rare exception, has economics as one of its roots, often the taproot of the upheaval, and taxes reach into the rich soil of an economy to leach it of the nutrients needed to make that economy grow. When that burden becomes too great, rebellion is common in history. We even teach our kids of "Robin Hood" who stole from the rich (actually tax collectors) to redistribute to the poor (return their money). The fable has been gradually altered to justify the socialist vote buying of government using a progressive income tax. And crossbow, longbow, pike, spear, sword, dagger, and quarterstaff were all arms, too.
