Significant Number Would Take Up Arms Against This Country

We live in a day when rebels view themselves as patriots, a day when a few have an itch to take up arms against this country. Oh, they are a far cry from the majority, but they are a significant number.

It is them I fear.

They speak of the Second Amendment as if it were placed in the Constitution to ensure that the people would be able to raise up against the government some day. I do not know exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they put a preface statement in the Second Amendment, saying a well-regulated militia is necessary for the security of this nation. But, I do not take it to mean that someday we must raise up in rebellion against our own country. That is a step too far, both in terms of what the Second Amendment is really saying and in what is likely to be necessary.

On the heels of Sandy Hook, our nation began this debate on gun control. I thought, then, how if too much control was enacted, some would literally be up in arms. It was a thought, then, and not something I really envisioned happening. I still don't. But, Obama's moves against guns appear that they might be as far-reaching as anything ever enacted. To top it off, many of them will come by executive order, further incensing  some.

I say, some, but, I mean those who itch to rebel against this government.

I still would guess it will not come to that. But, one never knows. What would they actually do? How do you actually go about taking up your guns against the government, even if you think it the right thing to do? 

I pray that they don't take up arms, in any fashion.

As an end-thought to all this. I think of a past blog, where I said the temptations of a gun are limited to the uses it has. A gun can be used for hunting, for skeet shooting, for protecting a home, and so forth. Often, the use of the gun is dictated by what society teaches its people it is there for. In Switzerland, more people own guns than in most countries. They use them for target shooting, and the use of a gun becomes a sport and pastime to them. I wonder but what if a study were done, we would find Switzerland has more gun clubs than any other nation.

A gun is used for what a society teaches its people to use it for. Switzerland might be recreation. So, what of a nation where many are taught that the purpose of the gun is to be ready to fight for freedoms should the government someday attempt to take them away?

If we are more likely to use the gun for the things we are taught that it is there for, what of us in the U.S.,where we are taught that the day might come when we will need to rise up in rebellion against our government. Yes, it may well be true we will need to, though I seriously doubt it. But, it is also true that some will tilt for a cause when no cause exists, simply because they have been taught to look that direction. They will fabricate a need in order to fulfill their vision. They will be looking so much for the day when the keeping and bearing arms means rising up in rebellion that they find a reason when no reason exists.

The gun sits on the shelve, inanimate, but it is an influence upon the person who owns it, just as all our hobbies and toys and pastimes are influences upon us. The influences of the gun must be selected from the things that can be done with the gun, with the emphasis on those uses taught to us by our society.

Our society teaches rebellion against an oppressive society. I do wonder whether we have more political shootings than most nations.