Quote Originally Posted by jamstigator
Armed or disarmed, the people will always have the greater power. Look what Gandhi did without using any weapons: he brought the British Empire to its knees and ultimately saw them removed them from power in India. Look what Martin Luther King did in Birmingham and, a couple of years later, Selma, using non-violent means: he ultimately convinced Congress and the president that life was just going to suck until blacks got equal treatment (or some acceptable semblance thereof).

Here's a quote from an article titled, "Why Gandhi Drives The Neoconservatives Crazy", published in Washington Monthly, September 1983:

"Neoconservatives seem to fear that America -- by braving the perils of
dissent and democracy -- will be similarly weakened. Part of what makes
America "great" is, theoretically at least, its reluctance to use force
against other nations. Yet, fearful that standards such as this place us
at a disadvantage in the real world, some neoconservatives advocate that
America needs to win a war somewhere, to use violence successfully.
Their insecurity would have us violate American values -- to mirror the
hideous brutality of less open societies -- in order to preserve them."

That paragraph is eerily prescient, considering what has transpired since 1983, and especially given the current state of affairs.

We need to look long and hard before we go rampaging around the world with our military. If we give up that which makes us great, in an attempt to preserve our greatness, then we aren't that great. Weapons and violence shouldn't be the first or second option when confronting a problem. If they are an option at all, they should be the absolute last option available. Gandhi and King both proved that you can disable powerful governments without ever lifting a gun. It's sad that our own citizenry hasn't learned that peace can triumph over force, and instead cling in fear to their guns, paranoid that someday they may need to use those guns against their government. Even if our own government were to turn tyrannical, we could defeat them without guns.
Yes, some excellent points; there's no doubt our image as a waring nation is real and the majority of EU nations perceive us as the biggest threat to world peace...

But I take exception to being lumped into this "our own citizenty" statement. I'm not paranoid or paramilitary. I obey just laws and fight to change unjust ones, peacefully. I own a gun because it's the easiest way to kill an intruder in my house. If they're in my house and not telling me why then I have enough evidence to know they're not a member of the U.N.