“What opponents of the second amendment have never understood is that the prime benefit of the right to bear arms is now and always has been reaped without a shot being fired. The main benefit does not lie in the occasional person who shoots an attacker in self-defense. It doesn’t lie in the many attacks that are stopped by warning shots or the brandishing of a weapon. The main value of the second amendment is that anybody who considers attacking a home, a business, or a community, has to fear one thing above all–the people there may be armed.
“And in the post-September 11 era it is again true: every sham ‘patriot’ who seeks to vent his frustration on the Muslim owner of the local market, the Muslim community a few miles away, or the Muslim mosque across town, has to keep one thing in mind above all–his intended victims may be armed.”
I’ve always believed that one of the great values of the 2nd Amendment is that it provides embattled minorities the chance for armed self-defense. After the September 11 terrorist actions, there were many violent attacks/hate crimes against Arab-Americans, and I think it was an excellent example of why the 2nd Amendment is needed, despite the problems associated with it. (I support the 2nd Amendment, though, unlike many of its supporters, I do acknowledge that it has a significant downside).
A newspaper column I wrote on the issue shortly after September 11 is below. On a related note, see my blog post I Don’t Think It’s a Hate Crime, but It’s Great Seeing an Arab Storeowner Defend Himself
Attacks on American Muslims Reaffirm Wisdom of 2nd Amendment
By Glenn Sacks
The wisdom of the Founding Fathers’ decision to include the right to bear arms in our constitution has been demonstrated again in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack. This nation’s founders saw the second amendment as a way for the common people to resist a tyrannical government and also as a way for besieged ethnic or religious minorities to defend themselves.
At the moment, the principal beneficiaries of the right to bear arms are American Muslims, who have come under attack by those who somehow hold them responsible for last week’s horrific events. Over the past week Muslims have been the victims of dozens of despicable hate-crimes. Gas station attendants have been shot at, punched, and attacked with machetes. Mosques, temples, and Islamic centers have been fired upon, vandalized, firebombed, and attacked with Molotov cocktails. Businesses have been burned down and fire-bombed. Muslim girls have been beaten, a Pakistani woman was almost run over by a car, and a Sudanese man was attacked with a knife. At least two victims of these hate-crimes are dead. Muslim-owned businesses have closed and many parents have held their children out of school because they fear harassment and violence. Small groups of Muslims in isolated, rural areas have been threatened and fear assaults upon their communities.
There are many instances in American history of besieged ethnic or religious groups successfully using the second amendment right of armed self-defense. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, for example, armed Korean merchants and residents brandished weapons to defend their homes and businesses from the angry mobs who had specifically targeted them.
In the late 1950s, Civil Rights leader Robert F. Williams led the black community of Monroe, North Carolina in its struggle to defend itself against the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Inspired by armed Native Americans who had recently repelled a white supremacist attack on their reservation, Williams organized armed self-defense patrols which successfully defended the black community against marauding racist vigilantes. (more…)
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