The Paranoid Delusions of Some Gun Advocates

TPM Reader MV complains that the paranoid delusions which form his support of the Second Amendment shouldn't be considered as paranoid or delusional as those of other gun supporters.

Here is his argument:

What guns do however, is basically guarantee bloodshed if the government ever does take a hard turn to tyranny. That bloodshed is itself a significant deterrent, even if its the revolters’ blood.

To borrow a phrase - Sadly, No! There is SO VERY MUCH that is wrong with his argument that it really is difficult to know where to start. So warning then - this post may ramble even moar than usual.

Item - the US is a country of some 300 million people. It is the twenty first frigging century. If the US government were to "take a hard turn to tyrrany", guns don't mean sweet fuck all. What if a tyrranical dictatorial executive branch were to suspend habeas corpus, disappear random individuals to secret black site torture centres, order the extra-judicial assassination of her own citizens? The government is going to do what-ever-the-fuck it pleases and no number of citizen-held private assault rifles is going to stop them. "Guarantee bloodshed"? Only in the paranoid delusions of some gun supporters - probably after watching a lot of Red Dawn.

Item - The example cited for the deterrence factor? Tiananmen Square. Because we all know how the plethora of privately held assault rifles made a huge difference in China. FFS, if Tank Man had an AK-47, no one would remember him at all. It is the lack of guns in the hands of the protestors that made it a powerful moment in history.

Item - What are the actual results of having all these guns in all of these hypothetical potential Freedom Fighters? TPM Reader MV, the paranoid delusional gun advocate acknowledges that no modern developed country's military is going to lose to a ragtag band of citizens militia. So what are they going to be able to do? I suppose the best you can hope for is maybe something along the lines of Waco. IOW, David Koresh represents the best case scenario to justify the widespread prevalence of killing machines.

Item - Even if the circumstances arise of a tyrranical government versus freedom-loving insurrectionists - the guns themselves DON'T EVEN FUCKING HALP. If the government were to suddenly go Despot-a-palooza, guess which side the vast majority of assault rifle toting jerkwads will be on? The Tahrir Square protestors back in 2011 were opposed as much by the regime as by conservative Mubarak supporting assholes.

Item - And let's look at the current situation. What is happening in the fallout from Sandy Hook? The government has decided that your personal mental health records should be widely accessible. People are proposing that the government place armed guards at every public building. Yayy FREEDOM! This must be what "the strongest possible protections against tyrrany" looks like.