I am NOT the NRA.

I am not a gun owner, not a gun enthusiast. I've never owned a gun and only fired one no more than half a dozen times.

My children were raised without the benefit of toy guns.

Yet I am a fan of the second amendment.

Why the contradiction?

I'm more scared of a my government than I am my neighbor.

Counterpoint

The Second amendment: Old and tired By Edward Hu

I trust my neighbor to generally do the right thing. It isn't in the best interest for my neighbor to do me harm.

We share self-interests.

The same can't be said for the government.

Part of the reason why the U.S. has managed to maintain a stable government is thanks to those in powers' healthy fear of its citizenry.

That healthy fear is a direct result of the second amendment and the government's inability to control our possession of arms.

I like the government to have a fear of its citizenship. I've seen what happens in other parts of the world when the government loses that fear.

I'm not concerned with protection from foreign invasion; we have a huge military complex to deal with that.

My concern is my own government -- regardless if it is national or state governments, I don't want then to be the only ones with access to arms.

"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword," said Noah Webster. "Because the whole body of people is armed."

First amendment supporters (freedom of speech) who are willing to trash the second amendment always surprise me.

The argument id the second amendment is dangerous for the citizens. But freedom of speech has been at least as dangerous.

Many would agree that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine High shooters, were just as influenced by American media as by access to weapons.

As juveniles, they had illegal access to the weapons, but legal access to the media that helped create the problem.

Give government control of the media -- a move I'd strongly oppose -- ands we could end the current sniper violence back east. You can bet the sniper is enjoying seeing reports of his activity every night on the news.

Yet the people hollering for dismantling the second amendment would never want to see an end of the first amendment, no matter how many of our populace that would be saved by restricting speech.

And this gets to the gist of the problem. Chapter One of Tyranny for Dummies says first build fear in the populace and then offer the trade of their rights to gain security.

Get the citizenry to voluntarily give up their rights.

We must be sure there is a valid public interest and that the safety is worth giving up in exchange for the right.

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty," Patrick Henry said. "Nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined."

With the odds of being killed in a traffic accident five times more likely than being assaulted by a firearm, the public safety argument for a ban on firearms hasn't been sufficiently made to justify a trade with our right to defend ourselves from our own government.