
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120472
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WILLIAM D. STUMP II
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SWISS LESSON/ FIREARMS PROTECT FREEDOM

UNDER THE feudal political system that once existed in Europe, an aristocracy held all power over the lives of serfs. The fruits of the people's labor went to their lords and they were left with only a subsistence.

The seeds of freedom were eventually planted in England when the kings found it necessary to arm the people in order to defend against the agressions of France and Germany. Finally, the invention of firearms made the lord and the vassal equals on the field of battle.

This made it inevitable that the common people would eventually demand to keep the fruits of their labor for themselves, to be dealt with in the courts as equals with the nobles and to have a voice in the making of state policies effecting their lives. The firearm is the mother of modern republics.

English settlers brought their firearms with them to America. Each man took responsibility for the security of himself, his family and his community. This responsibility engendered in the Americans the vigor and love of freedom that has made them beacons to the rest of the world.

During World War II, the same German army that easily occupied France thought it too risky to attempt an invasion of Switzerland. The Swiss, with a gun in every house, protected their neutrality while the rest of Europe was engulfed in a bloody war.

Since that war, Americans have provided security for Europe and all the free world. Now we have prevented an invasion of the Arabian Peninsula. We have done it because we are the only ones with the vigor to do it.

And now there are those who believe that we Americans are no longer equal to the responsibility of owning our firearms. If we allow ourselves to be disarmed, then eventually our children will fall under tyranny and the beacon that has inspired the world will burn out. No one will be left to fight the tyrants of the world.

Those who think that this is an unreasonable fear should consider the fact that those congressmen who would take our guns from us are the same ones who would tax us beyond what we can bear. Once we are disarmed, we would be helpless victims of criminals. The state would intrude into our lives in a vain attempt to provide the security that we could no longer provide for ourselves.

Already, the Bush administration has proposed a relaxation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, and black citizens in Washington, D.C., are searched at random in an attempt to enforce that city's gun ban. If we make ourselves weak, sooner or later somebody will take advantage of us.

I have talked to a young Arab man here in Abu Dhabi about how in Virginia we teach our children to shoot rifles. These same children have gone all over the world fighting tyrants. He said to me, "This is what we need. If we did, then no Saddam Hussein."

There has been much comment recently about the horrors of war. We must take the proper lesson from it. It is not that we should never again fight tyrants. It is that we should never forget at what a terrible price freedom is bought. We must not give up this expensive thing for a flimsy promise of security that obviously cannot be fulfilled.

Americans must never give up their arms or the last hope of oppressed people everywhere will die.

by CNB