As reported, the Congo (an African county that borders Sudan), is in the midst of a long and bloody civil war. A powerful Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, is especially known for brutality and torture. That rebel group goes from town to town, and often sends torture victims from a town they have already sacked to the next town as a grim warning. The town of Bangadi received such a warning, including a man whose back had been sliced up with a machete, and warned that the rebels would soon arrive. Upon hearing the news, the small police force fled the town, and neither the Congo military or the UN responded to the villagers pleas for help. After two weeks of begging for help that was not forthcoming, the villagers realized they had to defend themselves:
Their community leader called a town meeting, and told everyone to bring whatever weapons they owned. People showed up with rifles from before World War II, homemade shotguns, bows and poison arrows, knives, and even the wooden pestles that are used to pound yams into flour. Using these weapons, the villagers have driven off two attacks by the rebels, saving themselves from torture and death. Perhaps best of all, not a single civilian was killed in the first repulsed attack. Compare that with the hundreds of people who the rebels had killed in the previous weeks when they attacked other villages. Hearing the news, hundreds of other villages have reportedly formed self defense groups.
This is why I support gun rights, for both Americans and for the world’s population as a whole. Violent rebel groups, genocidal manics, and others who inflict unspeakable wrongs rely upon having defenseless victims. Gun control laws ensure that such victims are easy targets, and certainly don’t stop the violent oppressors from being armed.
You know, it's funny. I just recently watched that movie "The Postman" – that Kevin Costner post-apocalpytic movie in which he's a drifter that unwittingly starts a movement that liberates his little corner of post-apocalyptic America. In that movie, the main villain, Will Patton, is the leader of what amounts to a bandit army who kills, rapes, robs, and pillages at will, mainly because the townsfolk they prey upon are largely unarmed. When Costner's fledgling group finally gives a town the backbone to defend themselves, they show up the bandits and make a good account of themselves.
It surprises me that more people cannot see the gun issue in a light such as this – self-defense. While, God Willing, we'll never have to deal with a complete and utter breakdown of society as described in many a dystopian movie or novel, there are many instances in regular life where the strong attempt to impose their will on the weak. Firearms level that playing field, as has been mentioned in many posts in this blog.