One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � Universal right to bear arms?

One Hand Clapping � Blog Archive � Universal right to bear arms?: "Canadian Joe Katzman writes, here



We have a pretty different attitude to guns up here, and I must say that American gun culture has always kind of puzzled me. To me, one no more had a right to a gun than one did to a car. Well, my mind has changed. Changed to the point where I see gun ownership as being a slightly qualified but universal global human right.



What changed my mind? This simple conclusion:



The Right to Bear Arms is the only reliable way to prevent genocide in the modern world.



His tag line is direct: “The Right to Bear Arms. It’s not just for Americans any more.”



I wrote an essay in 2002 entitled, “Civilization, Violence, Sovereignty and the Second Amendment: Why the right to keep and bear arms is the fundamental right of a sovereign people.” I claimed then, and now, that civilization is founded and maintained on violence or the threat of violence, not an original thought of mine but one well developed by Christian philosopher Jacques Ellul in his book, Violence: Reflections from a Christian Perspective (go to the bottom of the linked page where there are links to the complete text in PDF and RTF, and an incomplete HTML version.)



Hence, if the ultimate authority of the state is to be found in the people of the state (as a condition of nature, as America’s Founders understood), then the people must also have the ultimate power to protect their sovereignty. That means, bluntly, the power of coercion. And coercion necessarily includes the use of violence.



What does this mean elsewhere in the world? Joe quotes a speech by Tendai Biti, an MDC member of parliament, referring to the mass starvation of Zimbabweans by dictator Robert Mugabe.



“I can’t tell you - and the hundreds of Central Intelligence Organisation officers who I know are listening to me right now - about who is going to provide the leadership, who is going to do what, and so forth - but what I can guarantee you is that the anger is overflowing in the veins of the average Zimbabweans. They will defend themselves. The time for smiling at fascism is over.”



Let’s hope so."