Shays' Longue Rebellion

Army of Lawyers, from Saratoga in Decline.

Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice notes the startling views of cartoonist Ted Rall, who accepts the need for some gun regulation even as he proclaims himself to be (who knew?) a member of the Water the Tree of Liberty Second Amendment Club. He says, [jump]

There is an argument that regulation is a first step toward government seizure. If they know who has guns, they can take them away. Which is true.

I don’t trust the government. No one should. But I’m counting on the fact that, if and when the time comes for armed resistance, it will be possible for patriotic Americans to keep their weapons out of the hands of government agents who seek to take them away. The situation will likely be chaotic and anarchic.

It strikes me that this whole theme about the Second Amendment and the right to revolution and shoot your congressman in the face is not merely offensive to pacifists and liberals and morally wrong and quite distinct from what the Founding Fathers-and-Mothers had in mind and off the wall in various other respects but is also really profoundly dumb. An adjective I never imagined myself applying to Ted Rall, but strange things happen.

In point of fact, that train left the station a long time ago. Long enough that it was definitely a steam train. Or more likely a boat, if it was in 1815, when demobilization from the War of 1812 left the nation with its first substantial standing army, of 10,000 troops. That's when the Second Amendment as revolution-enabler was definitively abandoned. Or else 1865, when the theory failed an extremely thorough test.

No matter how abusive the US government might be, or how abusive it may become in the future, it is not going to be overthrown with guns. They will always have more guns, little revolutionary, than you. In a proportion so great that it might as well be infinite.

If you would have revolution, you would be much better off learning how to do things with your computer. Or better still taking a cue from Pakistan and the black-suited regiment of attorneys that overthrew Pervez Musharraf in the most significant victory for democracy of that country's history. Try prying a lawyer from my cold, dead hands!

No fear of guns, flees at the sight of a briefcase. For reals! Via DNA India.