The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
–Audre Lorde
There is a myth in America that we are free because of guns.
This myth springs from many sources, but two immediately come to mind:
(1) US Constitution, Second Amendment (Bill of Rights):
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of
a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed.
(2) Thomas Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty letter:
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with
the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.
Unfortunately for all of us, this myth blinds us from
realizing that guns (and weapons in general) are tools of death and oppression, not tools
of liberation. Everywhere America goes, we introduce weapons, lots of weapons,
whose main purpose is to prop up sock-puppet dictators who oppress their own
people. Why? So the “free market” can steal their wealth for the benefit of the
one percent.
Certainly, guns played a role in the success of the American
Revolution. But what was the end result? The result was a self-anointed world’s
only super power which, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., is the
greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. Everything we do is based in
violence, actual or implied:
- Our so-called diplomacy is nothing but a litany of threats and extortions, often obscured by lies
- We spend more on military might than all of our potential enemies combined
- Violent video games, TV shows, movies, and music seem to be the chief part of our culture
- Our schools and neighborhoods are shooting galleries, for both police "good guns” and thug "bad guns”
Has any of this brought us peace or security? Of course not.
Has it impoverished us? A resounding YES.
So why do we still have all these guns? Do we think that we
will actually have a revolution someday to overthrow tyrants? Within recent
memory, we have lost our freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of
assembly, freedom of religion, the writ of habeas corpus and the right to a
trial by jury: some of the most important rights enshrined in our Constitution.
Has there been an armed rebellion intent on restoring these rights? No. Will
there be one? Of course not.
What would happen if there was one? Nothing. Why? The
master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. Or as Pete Townsend put
it in the song Won’t Get Fooled Again, “meet the new boss, same as the old
boss.” Violent revolution to overthrow a repressive government merely begets
another even more repressive, violent government. To think otherwise is to
ignore the past 500 years of world history.
So what should we do now? Disarm everyone, including the
government. And stop the President’s murder by drone program, too. Although his
sorrow for the deaths in Newtown, CT, may have been genuine, President Obama
ad-Dajjal was in a sense shedding crocodile tears yesterday. His “kill list”
has resulted in the deaths of more children and more terror in Afghanistan and
Pakistan than all of the school shootings in America combined [you can see the
proof @ http://www.livingunderdrones.org/report/].
If we truly mourn the death of our children, and I believe
we do, then it’s time to stop killing anyone’s children anywhere. And also time
to stop arming anyone, including mercenary armies, regardless of their
so-called intentions.
Guns are tools of oppression, not tools of liberation. And
the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. In the long run,
the so-called right to keep and bear arms can never have a positive outcome.
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