OFF: Founding dad dudes, and guns

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 05:32:29PM +0100, M Holmes typed out:
> Anyway, here's a start:
> 
> http://www.lizmichael.com/founding.htm
> 
> Short form: they wanted folks to have guns to shoot the British, the
> government, and pretty much anyone else who wanted to take liberties
> with liberty.

	That's an interesting little assortment of quotes (though the 
academic in me cries out for better referencing of course). This one 
seems most nicely to express where it's gone wrong:

"...but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to 
form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the 
liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little 
if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand 
ready to defend their rights..."

	As with the rise of feudalism, a peasant militia's only a 
defence against oppression when military tech is cheap enough for them 
to match the army. We've not been there for a long long time. Yours,
								     Jon

ObCD-R: Farflung - _The Myth of Solid Ground_
-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk