Right to Bear Arms
For my next tirade, I'll address national security and the right to bear arms. As someone who promotes freedom, I have to be completely against government banning of guns...however, I don't want most psychos to own guns and I never want to own a gun. My attitude is "it'd be great if guns didn't exist, but they do, the government shouldn't have banning power and even if they didn't they can't take them away from people (try to remove the kool-ade powder from the glass of water...you can't get it all) so let's at least try to promote proper use. I think people who say "we need guns...for sport, like this 50 cal rifle for when I'm shooting rabbits" are idiots, it's like a college student saying he bought his whole mp3 collection...it's a deception that is too difficult to uncover. In truth, the constitution gives people the right to bear arms because back then there wasn't such a large, organized army; when the needs of national security came up (true needs, like an invading army) the people could then band together and creat a self-defense force, rather than sitting there waiting for the calvary to arrive to save the day. How far we have come - now we have conservatives who spend thousands on guns for hunting and sport but won't help the hungry, who rather than go to war themselves would conscript others and spend MORE money BEING the invading army. If I found out that all nations of the world came together to invade American soil, THEN I'd buy a gun to fight a true threat to national security at my doorstep.
But this brings us to the topic of individual contribution to national security. I firmly believe that it is not the government's responsibility to bubblewrap the sharp corners of the world; When the government makes it their responsibility to ban marijuana, baby turtle sales, or drinking to people under 21, one may ask why they don't also ban cars (which kill more people than terror attacks), kitchen knives, or poisonous chemicals? The government is reactionary, they don't do anything on their own. Rational or not, to look like they're doing something, they act. And we follow. I read a great article here regarding the sacrafice of freedom for security. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up a little freedom to get a little security shall soon have neither." Let me tell you for absolute certain: I believe it would be simple to get an explosive on a plane. And if it happened to a plane I was on, I (and I hope any other American) would have killed him with my bare hands before he could even think about touching the detanator. If someone stood up on a plane with a match, which apparantly is not a security threat, and began lighting a laptop battery on fire, I'd have his teeth embedded in my knuckles. That's homeland security, not having to walk through a metal detector without shoes on after waiting in line for 2 hours.