[ExI] ccp struggles

[The Avantguardian]

    On Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 08:33:11 PM PDT, Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:  On Wed, 15 Apr 2020 at 11:18, The Avantguardian via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

 Quoting Stathis Papaioannou:
If a policeman tries to arrest you for something that you think is
unconstitutional, you don?t have the right to shoot him, or even threaten
to shoot him. You will likely be punished if you shoot him or threaten to
shoot him even if it is subsequently agreed in court (in a case separate
from your criminal trial) that the policeman was acting on laws that were
unconstitutional.
An armed American might not have the explicit right to shoot a policeman for violating his constitutional rights, but he certainly does have the option to do so. That option alone might prevent the policeman from barging into that American's home to see if he has anything he might want to take, demand free room and board from him, or otherwise excessively abuse police powers. Both the American citizen and the policeman have to deal with the consequences of their actions. By being armed, you can make sure those consequences are evident to the policeman. Armed citizenry keep the police honest.

Ever since Australians gave up their gun rights, the government can now just arrest their journalists and treat them like criminals, if they write or say the wrong thing. Can you imagine if Trump had that power here in America?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-15/abc-raids-australian-federal-police-press-freedom/11309810




Do you really think the Australian Federal Police would not have pursued the journalists if they feared they had guns? Do you think that the US Government might have not have pursued Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning if they had guns?
Those individuals would probably still have been pursued in those specific cases, but if the government started targeting a specific class of people, let's say journalists or jews. In that case guns would allow those people a chance to band together and formed a meaningful resistance.  There is ancient saying: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchers if not for we the people? The capacity for violence is like a currency accepted and appreciated not just by a single country or government but by all living things both known and unknown.
Stuart LaForge
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