Vezok wrote:But you must realize that right now is the highest point in civil liberties that the U.S. has ever been, because it is at this time that minorities have the most rights. Yes, there might be things like the patriot act every so often, but what you're saying doesn't account for the simple fact that all Americans have the most rights at the present.
All that is because of certain movements like the civil rights movement (which was vehemently nonviolent). You don't need weapons in order to get the rights you deserve, as the largest democracy on earth (India) liberated itself from the largest empire of all time (Britain) nonviolently.
EDIT* @Zeb's ninja.Spoiler:
Yea, most Christians haven't figured out that when Jesus said "love your enemies," he didn't mean shoot them. Reuben is pretty spot on there.
I definitely disagree that we are living in the peak of civil rights. Maybe after the civil rights movement we were at the peak, but we aren't there now. We have warrant-less search and seizures, reduction of due process and under the right circumstances no trial at all. If a government agency can take anything and imprison you without a process to hold them accountable and document they aren't making a mistake or worse abusing their power, we are more like north korea now than we what we were in the past.
During the civil rights movements people died, there were riots at times, they was abuse of power toward demonstrators and protesters. There was definitely violence alongside truly peaceful protest that finished with no incident. Nothing is coming to mind but I am sure there is at least one documented case in the civil rights movement where guns were in the hands of the protesters and in the hands of the authority and nothing not one shot was fired and everyone went home to see their families. Back to the bundy ranch incident, that was peaceful, I dont think there was even any property damage, and guns were in the hands of the protesters and the authority. A crowd of guns vs a crowd of guns seems it can be just as peaceful as anything else, maybe in some instances more peaceful than not having it. Back to guns for self defense, you dont have to shoot anyone with a gun, there are documented cases where guns prevented crime and no one was hurt or killed and no shot was fired.
tl;dr you can have a peaceful protest with guns present and if we did the research we would probably find that more often than not having guns present ends with no shot being fired and no property damage and no death compared to the amount of situations that escalate into a gun fight.
