I was under the impression that the Second Amendment exists so men like Larry Pratt can oppose the government when the time comes, but apparently it exists so white people can assist the government in oppressing minority citizens.
Pratt, the director of Gun Owners of America, recently appeared on the Liberty Roundtable and said average citizens should have shot protesters in Baltimore so the police wouldn't have had to respond.
via RightWingWatch
“This should be a wakeup call, if one were still needed, for Americans to arm themselves and be vigilant and, frankly, to know who your neighbors are,” Pratt said on the “Liberty Roundtable” last week, “and if, God forbid, something like Baltimore were to loom as a possibility where you live, that you and your neighbors would be able to hopefully head it off before it gets as bad as Baltimore got. Because one thing I’m pretty sure of is if the bad boys see that this is not going to be taking candy from a baby, that you break a window, you get shot. ‘Oops!’”
[...]
“So at the first instance of collective criminal activity, ‘Boom!’ In comes the paddy wagon, off they go,” he said. “And if they start violating persons or destroying property, ‘Bang!’ Then you don’t need a paddy wagon. “
I can't imagine our founding fathers intended for the Second Amendment to be used against fellow citizens for the crime of destroying property in protest of the government.
If Larry Pratt had been around at the time, would he have called for shooting the real tea party? They did destroy property.
If you weren't already convinced otherwise, recent events should conclusively end the charade that conservatives truly believe in civil liberties or limited government. And despite all of their rhetoric, they apparently don't believe that the government should be opposed when it overreaches. At least not if the victims of overreach are black.
Police officers are agents of the state; an intersection of policy and the enforcement of policy.
If conservatives and Second Amendment Men actually believed their own bullshit, they would place themselves on the side of protesters and those who are disproportionately harassed, arrested, imprisoned and killed by the state's enforcers.
Men like Larry Pratt don't place themselves between the oppressive government and vulnerable minorities because they're stone cold racists who literally daydream out loud about shooting black men.