In the column “It’s an American Attitude” it was suggested that if we trust our government more, Americans will enjoy a safer country.

However, blind faith in government is a dangerous proposition. Flipping through the pages of an American history book illustrates why Americans should always hold the U.S. government in question.

I ask: Should the test subjects at the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, the women who were not allowed to vote, the 400 Americans imprisoned in Chicago who were intentionally infected with malaria, the slaves, the Asian-Americans who were imprisoned during World War II, etc, etc., have placed more trust in their government? Should they? To think that our government has evolved to where future encroachments on our civil liberties are impossible is beyond naive.

Knowing that “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” the founding fathers purposefully included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights as to provide Americans with the ability to protect themselves against tyranny. 

Tyranny comes in all forms, from the robber who breaks in a home to government-orchestrated acts. Guns allow Americans to turn the tables by taking the physical element out of the equation. With a gun, an average person can adequately defend him or herself from a large male brandishing a knife. 

There have been countless circumstances where this scenario has come to fruition. Should these men and women have been attacked? Without guns, criminals will have a field day raping, robbing and pillaging defenseless homes and people.