Only The Ruling Class Can Be Trusted With Weapons

I think we can all agree that if we lived in a totalitarian police state with no personal rights or freedoms, where everyone was under constant scrutiny, and stepping even one inch out of line meant that a bunch of dudes in a black van showed up in the middle of the night and whisked you off to a gulag, the recent school shooting in Newtown, CT would never have happened.

The point I'm really trying to make here is that I object to the draconian notion that it's the government's responsibility to prevent crime rather than to deter it. There will always be a trade-off between freedom and safety -- that is the very essence of the social contract.

Using this shooting as an example in the argument against our right to bear arms is the same as arguing for banning alcohol in order to prevent drunk driving fatalities. (In fact, it's an even weaker argument, because drunk driving kills WAY more people every year than guns do.)

History demonstrates, however, that banning alcohol is a REALLY stupid idea, and creates a lot more problems than it solves.

But what do I know? I'm just some guy who believes that all men and women were created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

--Dan Colgate