Oh, hello there. Don't mind me. I'm just watching a senate candidate from Maine talk about forcing you to give up your firearms.
The video starts with the undercover reporting asking Savage about "our agenda," inquiring if Lisa Savage – a U.S. Senate candidate and public schoolteacher from Maine – believes the Democratic Party will ever embrace socialism.
"Never," replied Savage.
The Senate hopeful then went on to discuss mandatory gun "buyback" programs with the undercover reporter.
"Buyback worked well in Australia.... Australia had a mass shooting like three, five years ago and they did a [gun] buyback program and they haven't had a mass shooting since," said Savage.
I hate to kill her dreams of utopia, but Australia's buyback program actually hasn't gone that well. The programs Australia initiated only led to a third of weapons being surrendered, and a study from the University of Melbourne showed firearm homicides haven't actually decreased.
The same trend is seen around the world. Law-abiding citizens surrender their weapons, and in a best-case scenario end up being murdered by criminals.
Turns out, bad guys don't give up their guns.
Of course, I'd also point out to Savage that gun confiscation had some pretty bad results in a few other nations. The Soviet Union implemented incremental mandatory confiscations starting in 1918. Within a few decades, their government had murdered over 20 million of their own people, with millions more tortured, raped, and imprisoned. Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and other Soviet satellite states followed suit with the same results.
The wonderful and totally-not-a-despicable-mass-murderer Chairman Mao did the same in China. He is famously quoted as saying, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Even those head-over-heels in love with Marxism have to grapple with the fact that Hitler essentially said the same thing:
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms," said Hitler. "History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjugated races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police."
Savage continued by affirming she supports both a mandatory buyback program and an "enforcement mechanism" before turning the conversation on the Second Amendment itself.
"What I tend to say is I respect the Second Amendment because it's part of the Bill of Rights until they repeal it," said Savage. "But it said a well-ordered militia – a rag-tag bunch of fat guys in camo that tried to kidnap – that is not a well-ordered militia."
I would assume that Savage is referring to the anarchist group of men accused of trying to kidnap Michigan Empress Gretchen Whitmer (May She Live Forever). Of course, Savage has no indication that these criminals don't represent the thousands of responsible citizens who actively participate in gun clubs and militias. Given the media's assertion that they are all white supremacists and domestic terrorists akin to ISIS, perhaps her misconceptions can be understood.
To educate this wayward candidate on why her ideals would be firmly rejected by our nation's Founders, I'll end with a list of memorable quotes on the nature and importance of an armed citizenry.
After enduring that socialistic drivel, please enjoy this timeless common-sense wisdom:
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." - Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book, 1774-1776
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." – James Madison, 1789
"To disarm the people…[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them." – George Mason, 1788
"I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." – George Mason, 1788
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops." – Noah Webster, 1787
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." – Richard Henry Lee, 1788
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." – Patrick Henry, 1788
"Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." – Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, 1789
"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government... The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair." – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28
And finally:
"On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed." – my boy Thomas Jefferson, 1823
