A century ago the right to bear arms was barely protected the way it is today. The modern absolutist version of it didn’t exist until recently. Prior to modern weapons hitting their marketability and becoming extraordinarily widespread alongside a general decline in the national welfare in the form of vast wealth inequality, crushing systemic oppression, a collapsing environment, creeping fascism, and a failed financial system that not just lost its ability to lift people out of poverty but now holds them down in it… it just wasn’t really a problem.

And again, there is no fear or reprisal and never was any from the feds. Not once in modern life has the federal government refused to enforce its laws, just or unjust, over fears of someone’s armed status. When some guy out on a ranch was armed to the teeth and refusing to comply, the feds showed up in force to put that shit down. The only real law enforcement response to all the guns is that cops are more likely to shoot first and assess threats second than they once were. The real result of how widespread guns are is the average person being less able to defend themselves against unjust actions of the state because they are dead.

Meanwhile, people – people like you – are treating the actual tyranny going down like someone else’s problem. Blaming the victims for not strapping. Instead of doing something about it. You aren’t showing up to defend the weak. That isn’t really what your guns are about. They’re just totems and fetishes that represent beliefs you don’t have the courage to act on. It’s a power fantasy, but not one you’ll act on.

All these facts together are how I know that the right to bear arms is all about self-defense and not at all about a check on government power. Not to even mention the myriad historical documents including the Constitution itself that make it blindingly obvious that there is no right to commit sedition or rebel.

I’m not even super anti-gun. I don’t like them much, but don’t really give much of a fuck about bans, especially in the face of the impossible political task represents. But I sure would love the folks who love guns to actually step forward and help advocate for policy that WOULD address the problems of violence that don’t take guns away. Gun policies like universal registration/training, removing policies that protect sellers and manufacturers from liability, and collecting national statistics on violence (instead of forbidding it, because these stats should show guns make the world safer if the lobby isn’t totally full of shit), investigating domestic terrorist organizations, and all these things. Not to mention desperation interventions like education, better urban design, mental/physical healthcare, and labor reforms that can remove root causes of violence. Things the average gun lover stands firmly against. I suppose because they want the guns being used.