But even with an individual right to keep and bear arms, the government is the sole legitimate keeper of the right to use force except in limited circumstances such as the right to protect yourself, family and property or to prevent the comission of a crime. Other than that, the state reserves the right to violence to itself whether to punish or to enforce. It is the charter of the US federal government, the Constitution, which limits the scope of that power by the federal government. Without that compact, society runs amok. Anarchy.
But the basis of the compact is trust, and the Dems have broken that trust in a big way. Most people cannot even articulate what has been lost, but they understand, instinctively that something intrinsic has changed. The conservatives in this country have a chance to again show the people of this country that they can control their destiny, but they must be the stewards of government that they failed to be the last time around.
I believe we fought a war, in part over the "Divine Rights" of Kings. In this country, the State has no rights, and no powers beyond those delegated to it. That does include the power to use force to punish, after due process, and not to "enforce", whatever that might mean. The police have no more power to use force than you or I. They can use it to defend themselves, or to stop a crime in progress.
The state gets it's power as delegation from the people. The people could not delgate any power they did not have and they did not give up any they had.
Government doesn't stave off anarchy, it's society, government just provides the mechanism for doing the will of the people.When it stops doing that, you have tyranny, which can lead to anarchy, depending on the "efficiency" of the Organs of State control.
As Jefferson put it:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—