An armed society is not free

Ari Ezra Waldman, a law commentator for Towleroad, pokes and prods at the Second Amendment to see what kinds of gun control laws it permits. Along the way he disagrees with the most recent of such decisions handed down by the Supremes. What caught my attention is that he takes on an argument that always appears after a shooting.

There is also nothing in the Second Amendment that makes sense out of the "more guns are the answer" argument. Just because there is a right to something doesn't mean that the right is necessarily enjoyed responsibly or should be invoked commonly in civil society. All rights have attendant responsibilities and limits. And, just because the Framers of the Constitution thought that generally available guns would make society more free or more stable, does not mean that is necessarily true.

In fact, the exact opposite is true. An armed society is not a free society. It is one that is supposed to discourage bad behavior not by creating good citizens, but by putting the fear of death into everyone around. An armed society takes away the government's monopoly on punishment and elevates fear to a governing principle of stability and order. Perhaps Machiavelli would be proud, but it would shroud modern American democracy under a dark cloud of suspicion, conformity, and hostility.