“To me, a rifle is not for sporting or hunting, it is an instrument of freedom.”

Via Hot Air, here’s video of an activist speaking in Tienanmen Square about the importance of the individual right to keep and bear arms. It’s a powerful message coming as it does from a place where the importance of being able to defend oneself against overbearing government is well understood, if not embraced legally.

Via Legal Insurrection, here’s a vet standing up for gun rights at an anti-gun event in Chicago:

The common thread of these two videos is the idea that gun rights go beyond shooting deer and ducks to the need for the public, at large, to be able to resist government that gets out of control.

This, of course, is poo-pooed by our friends on the left as being ridiculous. We are far too civilized in America for our government to ever oppress to the degree that armed resistance might be necessary, they tell us, and besides private citizens and their rifles/handguns would never be able to resist the might of modern military/police powers.

I’m not at all convinced that we’re beyond the days when gun ownership as a check on extreme government overreach, and as for an armed citizenry resisting modern military might, the Afghans and Iraqis in the middle east sure gave our troops a run for their money, and it wasn’t force of arms that ultimately won the day in Iraq.

I don’t support gun rights because I think my current government might need to be resisted or overthrown. As much as I dislike President Obama, and as much as I’ve lost faith with this crop of fools we have running Congress, we’re the victims of poor governance not oppression. Rather, I support gun rights for a future when armed resistance might be necessary.

If we give up our gun rights now, they’re not something that can be easily restored. Our traditions of gun ownership being a philosophy and skill handed down through families and communities would be lost. If we got rid of guns, if we undermine the culture of American gun ownership, it won’t be there in the future should we need it.

That’s not a chance I’m willing to take.