In the early days of the republic, our Marines actually used guns to stop the pirates operating out of Libya, hence the lyrics ".. to the shores of Tripoli.." Pirates are thieves on the seas, they earned their living off the backs of other people, stealing cargo and seizing ships. The Marines put a stop to that with guns.
Even during the Revolutionary War it was private ownership of guns that helped form an army to liberate us from the tyrannical King George the 3rd of England. It was his taxes and restrictions on the colonies that sowed the seeds of discontent, but without the guns in the hands of citizens, the Revolution would have been short lived.
Then came the War of 1812, without an armed populace, the British may have taken back our nation, putting us once again under the thumb of the British King. The British finally learned the effect of an armed citizenry and since then our relations have improved. Perhaps they are our best friends of the nations of the world.
Throughout the history of our nation, gun manufacturers have tried to improve the product. It was a competitive thing. They knew that better guns would sell better, but the off shoot was that our military also benefited. This technology helped repel the Spanish, the French, keep the Japanese off our shores, settle the wilderness, and improve law enforcement. All for the betterment of our society.
It is the gun manufacturers, primarily because of capacity, that helped win both World Wars. And more importantly, private ownership of guns has kept tyranny from rearing its ugly head in our nation. Unlike Germany pre-World War II when the Nazi's made gun ownership difficult at best and Hitler's regime came to power and almost destroyed Europe.
And yes, there has been evil done with weapons, guns included. One of the most horrific mass killings in our history occurred when a disgruntled employee in Bath Township Michigan planted dynamite and blew up a school, killing 38 kids, six adults and injured 58 others. That was deadlier than the recent Newtown incident. And at about the same time as the Newtown crime, in China, where gun ownership is non existent, a knife yielding psychopath hacked up close to 25 students at a Chinese school. And consider the death toll of tyrants like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, the Sandinista, the Castro Brothers, and others in just the last century. Or the terrorists currently coming from the Middle East, with illegal weapons. The 9/11 terrorists did not use guns, they used air planes.
In the present, gun manufacturers employ many people, so do ammunition makers. Retailers employ people to sell guns. Government employs people to do background checks, and on and on. Australia had a mandatory gun buy back program starting in 1996. The next year murders and violent crime sky rocketed. The Soviet Union banned guns, and more Soviet citizens, mostly Jews, died than during the Holocaust. Tyranny kills.
So while the gun industry is important to us in an economic sense, they also give us the means to protect our liberty. And that is the spirit of the Second Amendment. And Liberty is what has made the USA's economic engine the greatest since the beginning of time. I do not own a gun, my son does. I do know how to shoot because of an NRA clinic when I was very young. And I was a pretty good shot.
There may come a time in this world when the people of all nations will be at peace, I pray. But that time is not now. And we, as a nation, need to be prepared for the worse case. There are bad things that happen, but eliminating guns will not cure evil, it will only embolden it. And it will put us in economic and libertarian jeopardy.
Support Liberty as if your economic life depends on it!
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