A Headline is Worth a Thousand Words

A Headline is Worth a Thousand Words
Posted by James Ostrowski on February 5, 2011 10:19 PM

There's much confusion about the purpose of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Critics who fail to grasp or refuse to acknowledge its purpose find it easy to cast the right to bear arms in a sinister or silly light. It's about shooting Bambi or a politician who votes the wrong way on HR83901.

This headline from today captures the essence of why we need a right to bear arms:

2 dead in Tunisia after police open fire on demonstrators

As you have surely surmised already, the right to bear arms is defensive in nature. Its purpose is to allow the people to defend themselves against the government when the government, as governments frequently have done, engages in mass murder against people who are peacefully exercising their natural rights such as freedom of speech, assembly, religion, petition or even that glorious right to alter or abolish the government itself.

xxx

2 dead in Tunisia after police open fire on demonstrators
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 6, 2011 -- Updated 0050 GMT (0850 HKT)

(CNN) -- Police in the northern city of El Kef opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Tunisia on Saturday after demonstrators reportedly became violent, the country's official news agency reported.

About a thousand people were outside the police station when authorities fired shots, killing two people and injuring 17, Tunis Afrique Presse, or TAP, said. It was not immediately clear why the protesters were there.

The news agency reported that demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the building and burned two cars. Police fired tear gas and then shots in the air. When protesters did not respond, they fired into the crowd, TAP said.

Tunisia remains on edge ever since longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on January 14, following weeks of protests against poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression that left 100 dead.


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/05/tunisia.violence/