Point of departure: Bill O Reilly

For the most part Bill O Reilly is a non-factor for me. I have never watched his show (or listened...to be honest I don't even know if he is radio or television. Or care.) I do know he arouses a great deal of vitperation and calumnation from people who are no fans of his but I have never actually checked out if it was deserved.

I read a piece of his this morning. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the first bit of his work I have ever read. It is not brilliant but neither is it banal. He actually makes some pretty solid points. Should you care to you can read it here.

I disagree with some of his comments...such as saying Virginia's gun laws are too lenient. My Dad actually sent me an intriguing article pointing out that states which specifically allow people with concealed gun permits to carry them even in schools have not experienced this wave of stupidity. Virginia does not allow that. I have often seen the arguments that these shootings do not occur in Texas with the theory being it is because when one idiot starts shooting random people there are likely to be armed people shooting back. It is an interesting theory with some merit. Note that in Virginia only outlaws were armed...remember that classic bumper sticker "When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns"?

Of course, one common argument is registering guns. Let us not forget the first nation to have complete registration of guns...Germany, circa the 1930s.

But where I really have a bone to pick with O Reilly is his arguments about the 2nd Amendment. He argues the amount of firepower available to the populace should be limited. This clearly demonstrates his misunderstanding of the point of the 2nd Amendment.

It was not written to give citizens freedom to go target hunting on Saturday. It was not written to ensure they could go hunting. It was not written to guarantee them the right to hang a family heirloom on the wall. It is much more subversive than that.

Check the word I used there. The government itself had written into its guide and authority a subversive clause.

The entire point of the 2nd Amendment was a government that is able to disarm its citizenry has then no check on its powers. The 2nd Amendment is there specifically to allow the citizenry to overthrow a government that grows to oppressive.

When we see repeated news stories of abuses of police power, of governmental invasions of privacy, of a government derailed from any moral compass, inflicting legalized murder as a "right", putting in programs of enforced sterility (that is part of our history. Look it up.), overtaxing the citizenry, and so forth then the 2nd Amendment was written to give the citizens the ability to perform their duty and overthrow the government.

You read that correctly...the Founding Fathers believed it was the DUTY of the citizens to overthrow a government that had grown corrupt and invasive. They prepared the citizenry by guaranteeing them the right to defend themselves.

Yet more and more calls will be heard in the next few days to disarm even more of the citizenry. Let me point out the innocent people in Virginia who died...were unarmed. The innocent people at Columbine who died...were unarmed. The innocent people who died in Springfield....were unarmed. The times these sprees have been stopped early have been when someone who was innocent and armed stopped it. The lessons are clear but, like most lessons, will be ignored.