The right to bear arms?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "victoriatangoman"
wrote:
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "orionaut"
> wrote:
> > --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "victoriatangoman"
> > wrote:
> > > Shall the citizens of the Habitats have the right to bear arms
> in
> > > order to prtect their property and to counterbalance the power
> of
> > > their government?
> >
> > If a habitat is unwise enough to HAVE what we today think of
as "a
> > government" (rather than a rigorously limited "night-watchman"
> > administration the role of which is strictly coordinative rather
> > than "political"), then HELL YEAH, its inhabitants had BETTER
have
> > weapons. For the very same reasons that we have them Down Here.
>
> Cutting through the jingoism, what good are the weapons in the
hands
> of Americans doing with respect to curtailing the government? I
> don't see the government restrained by fear of popular armed
> uprising. So, if the weapons aren't working Down Here, why will
they
> work to that effect in orbit?

By 2016, about half of the baby-boomers will have retired and the
Ponzi scheme that is federal pension plans will come crashing down.
On the month that social security checks don't come, watch a
government in fear of an armed populace.

>
> This whole libertarian utopia really needs a massive rethink in
> order to bring its prescriptions into congruence with reality.
>
> TangoMan

Utopia would be boring.

Ed