Editor’s Note: The following editorial is a satire piece. 

In 1788, the Founding Fathers of the United States ratified the Constitution: the document specifying how America would be governed. In order to convince states to vote in favor of ratification, the Founding Fathers included the Bill of Rights: the first 10 amendments specifying those specific personal rights the federal government should protect and uphold for Americans.

Of those 10, one amendment stands out as vastly more important than the others. The Second Amendment, though second on the list, is by far and away the most crucial right we as Americans enjoy and must protect.

The specific language of the amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” 

The Founding Fathers, having just fought and defeated a world superpower in the Revolutionary War with the use of local militias, believed that armed private individuals could continue to be of great value in ensuring the United States’ security.

Having gained independence from the British monarchy, the point was also made that militias could also provide a counter balance to a large federal military. Should the president turn tyrannical, citizens could take up arms against the government and the army to ensure their freedom.

And from that, we see that guns really won America its freedom, and guns are the one and only way to guarantee that freedom moving forward. Thanks to the Supreme Court, we don’t even have to rely on the Constitution’s language to ensure our right to guns.

Thanks to the decision in Columbia v. Heller, the right to bear arms was extended beyond militias to all private citizens. The Supreme Court believed an unorganized group would provide a good counter force to the National Guard, today’s militias and the United States military.

With their decision in Caetano v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court extended these rights beyond guns to all bearable weapons that it had already defined in Columbia v. Heller. Unfortunately, the federal government has been apprehensive to fully embrace the Second Amendment as it should apply to all weapons.

Why shouldn’t law-abiding citizens be allowed to own hand grenades and rocket launchers? These are as commonly used by fighting forces as assault rifles and handguns. They would serve a very specific yet meaningful purpose as self-defense tools. In a country that gained its freedom fighting a war, why shouldn’t citizens be allowed to own military-grade weapons?

How do they expect us to fight a tyrannical government and military with simple assault rifles? Sure, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks might allow us to last a little while, but a corrupt U.S. government will be deploying troops with fully automatic rifles, not to mention tanks, fighter jets, attack helicopters, drones and the most elite soldiers on the planet. How are we supposed to compete with that if we don’t have the same access to that level of weaponry?

Admittedly, those things cost money, and a lot of it, but the Second Amendment doesn’t say “the right to keep and bear affordable arms.” Why can’t the super-rich buy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades? It should be their right. They should be allowed to bear those weapons for whatever lawful purpose they choose.

Each day we allow Congress to remain inactive in expanding our rights to keep and bear arms is a day the federal and state governments continue to plot ways to take away our only way to fight back by ensuring the police and military will be the only ones with weapons.

America used to be the greatest country in the world, back when everyone owned guns and could shoot at the tyrannical British army. Sadly, we have fallen a long way such that our own government, so caught up in a power trip, refuses to ensure it is the citizens who are most capable of winning a war. They continue to build the military into an unbeatable fighting force and plot to use it to control the private population.

Our only hope is American billionaires developing their own militaries and arming them, as well as U.S. soldiers, as a way to fight back against an impending takeover. It is not Russia or China who openly admit to wanting to control the American public that pose the greatest threat to our way of life. It is our own government and their political tactics to take away our guns or deny us our full rights under the Second Amendment that will be our downfall. 

Despite our position as the greatest country in the world, we are a single election away from a hostile takeover by the federal government. We do not have fail-safes in position to prevent such an event. Neither Congress nor the courts nor even our brave service members will be able to stand up to the executive branch. Police forces and sheriffs’ departments will be forced to acquiesce as government employees. Only we, the people, can protect our freedom, and only with guns. There are no other options.