If there was ever a great example of why the framers of the Bill of Rights thought gun ownership was so important (it made the number two spot on the list of amendments), this is it. French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, watching as her support further erodes, warned that France will face violence and brutality if her oponent, Nicolas Sarkozy, is elected. In a bizarre statement, Royal announced, “It is my responsibility today to alert people to the risk of (his) candidature with regards to the violence and brutality that would be unleashed in the country (if he won).”
Get it? If that scary right-wing nutjob, Sarkozy, wins the election (as he almost certainly will), France will face violence and brutality at the hands of right w…, no, wait a minute… start over, left wing nut jobs! That’s right, Royal is threatening that her own base will lash out with violence and brutality if she is not elected!
Private gun ownership, aside from driving leftists into involuntary convulsions, is protected by the Second Amendment precisely so that ordinary citizens have some measure of defense against political tyranny. And when a politician such as, say, Royal, threatens violence from her followers if they don’t get the results they want, people who wish to play by the rules of the democratic process need to defend themselves against that tyranny.