“Naturally one can see how politicians (or entire political credos) in bad faith, would just love to take advantage of security issues to increase their control. I’m torn, but the issue keeps coming back, because it’s inescapable.”
You question almost answers itself...do you trust this current crop of politicians and panty waist senior military officials to apply these draconian dictates in a way that preserves the best balance between civil liberties and security?
The best options are to do what our early founders did...form well trained militias from amongst the responsible gun owners in this nation and to hold each private citizen more responsible for the saftey and security of this nation. The cops can’t be there all the time.
Hello mdmathis6,
Thanks for responding. The short answer is no. But unfortunately it’s not so simple. Private citizens don’t have the intelligence / forensic / information gathering / spy craft techniques and equipment.
They sure as hell can help, but then there’s also the risk of vigilanteism.
If you trusted your government, you’d probably feel less queasy about it. The answer is in the “present crop”.
Can you deny the fact that the early founders, for all their brilliance, never dreamed of today’s destructive capacities and extreme vulnerabilities? They did worry about tyranny, foreign entanglements and such. But that was the age of muskets, of tight-knit communities and not sprawling metropolises, of sailing ships and not mini submarines, of horse and ox drawn wagons and not containers all alike stacked up to heaven.
In any case, the issue needs study. I don’t think anyone sincerely worried about security in today’s world needs to automatically be considered an anti-American traitor.