And my point is that the 2nd amendment did not protect the people, in this instance. It's been used as an excuse many times, though.
The Constitution enumerates certain rights that people have and limitations on government powers. It was never intended to be about safety, it is about freedom and keeping government in check. Some Euros don't grok that and a lot of Americans, myself included, don't grok how a population can be pleased with having laws that criminalize stating a belief that the holocaust never happened or banning Tom Cruise from filming on location because he is a Scientologist.
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." Thomas Jefferson.
More criminals are shot by citizens than by police in this country. http://www.gunowners.org/sk0802.htm When I did point a gun at someone back in 1986 I was outnumbered 3 to 1 by belligerent blacks who clearly did not like white people. The mouthy pack leader is who I pointed my Beretta 950BS Jetfire .25 ACP at. I believe that he understood very clearly that no matter what else happened that I was ready to kill him because he shut up and they left. I went home uninjured. If I am ever in another riot I do not intend to rely on sticks and bricks like in grade school and Junior high school. This is not just an academic question for me.
I think that people in Northern and Western Europe simply can't comprehend the idea of the people having the actual power. They still seem to believe in the ideals of the absolute monarchy, which says that the people only get its right from the king, who in his turns got them from God, because they don't even accept the sheer questioning of the state's power over the individuals.
For some reason I never got an answer on my question whether it was right or not of that Jewish widow to give away her husbands guns before the Gestapo came and took her away for being murdered.
no people has real power, "people power" is just as much a myth as "global peace" or "the next step of collective evolution"
a _Certain_ power yes, always. a certain global peace, like we have now. a certain evolution, such as various forms of sexual selection (boobs in western societies continue to grow)
but humans need governing bodies, to lead the many. its our nature.
personally, i regard modern society as an error of nature. something not "meant to be", and a result of too much success.
nature always turns towards success - but has no "safety" against "too much success"
originally our authorities were very close to us. the tribal leader, who watched you grow up, litterally. the tribal elder, who has the tribe babies on his knee, and cuddles them. human authority is originally a protector, a source of safety.
but modern "tribes" have members counting in the millions, which is an absurd number. it is only "in theory" that all swedes form a group, since i find it highly unlikely you have actually met and befriended every swede there is, even less all swedes in power - governing the rest of sweden. this all is an error - but it is still as natural as it can be, as the alternative (no authorities) would be even further from our nature, than the situation we are in right now.