The Canary In The Coal Mine

Well into the 20th century, coal miners in England and the United States brought caged canaries into coal mines as an "early warning signal" for toxic gases. The birds, being more sensitive, would become sick before the miners, who would then have a chance to escape.

A politician's position on gun rights can serve a similar function.

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." - Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, former Texas State Representative

The Second Amendment was put in the Bill of Rights to ensure the people always had the power to overthrow tyranny. How threatened by that an Elected One or Elected One Wannabe feels should give you an idea of how tyranny-minded he or she is.

"Before a standing army can rule the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States." - Noah Webster of Pennsylvania, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787

And whenever government officials decide they want to disarm the people, egregious human rights violations invariably follow. For those rights violations to be acceptable to the overall populace, gun owners must first be marginalized and demonized.

Sound familiar? It should.

This is not just a fairy tale, scare tactic, or even recent phenomenon, but has been repeated all over the world and throughout history.

The human rights violations don't just affect those eeeeevil gun owners, though. All serfs citizens' lives become subject to the metal detectors, warrantless searches, and no-knock raids neccessary to maintain a helpless safe society. Already the public is becoming inured to no-knock drug raids, initiated on unsubstantiated tips from dealers and junkies looking for leniency, that kill or injure innocent people.
Some politicians get it, though, and we owe them our full support. Too bad there don't seem to be any running this time around . . .

"The ruling class doesn't care about public safety. Having made it very difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake." - former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wy.) (emphasis added)