Valles Wrote:A government monopoly on force is kind of one of the fundamental building blocks of civilization -Sure it is. All those kings and queens and princes and emperors and caliphs and czars have always wanted government monopoly on force.
That's one of THE fundamental DIFFERENCES between America and the rest of the world. We -don't- believe in that. The 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights is supposed to guarantee that our government does NOT have a monopoly on force.
Yes I'm well aware that our government is more than able to overwhelm any household or property through force of arms. (The militarization of our police greatly worries me.) They will always have access to more firepower than any single person. But it's the principle of the thing.
There should always be some question in the minds of government officials as to whether they can simply come in and take or exercise control over a man and/or the belongings that he rightfully owns by force. Keeps them at least semi-honest. That's the theory anyway.
I would rather the government fear and respect an armed citizenry than the citizens be totally and completely at the mercy of the government.
And - when it comes to personal defense, the cops can NEVER stop someone from murdering or hurting someone else. It's extraordinarily unlikely that a cop will be in the right place at the right time to reach you in order to help or stop a crime in progress. I agree with ECSNorway on this. They can deter criminals and make them think twice by being present. But they cannot stop a crime from happening where they are not. They can investigate a crime after it's happened. But they cannot prevent.