The Founding Fathers went out of their way to enumerate the right to keep arms for self-defense, not because they were gun nuts, and not because they envisioned armed American militias fighting an oppressive government, but because they realized that a nation with a fully armed citizenry is unlikely to be successfully invaded by a foreign nation. Such a nation does not need an expensive, titanic, globe-spanning military to generate a healthy respect for its defensive capabilities. One of the most peaceful nations in the world is also the most heavily armed: the Swiss government issues weapons and training to each of their citizens and has maintained neutrality and economic prosperity for hundreds of years. Remember: all the high tech gadgets, fighter planes, missiles, and intelligence operatives could not stop the 9/11 terrorists, but a small band of self-armed citizens on Flight 93 defeated fully one fourth of Al Qaeda’s deadly blow. Mao Zedong, China’s most infamous human butcher, said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Prior to 40 years of inhuman subjugation and government-directed violence, his first order of business was to take away all guns from the Chinese people.
