Tangentially relevant, but I was thinking of the European / American context switch happening somewhere about constitutional rights and specifically the right to bear arms. (I am an European, Turkish specifically) The idea behind the second amendment seems to be to stop the Government from turning against its own constituents. Nowhere in Europe such a reasoning exists, including Turkey. On one hand, it prevents this conflict—no, police attacking civilians—from escalating as people are not armed, but on the other hand as I see police violence like this [1][2] I'm starting to think we need an equivalent law that allows people to protect themselves.
Maybe, but that's not really how gun ownership works in America. The people protesting things typically aren't gun owners, and even if they are, they don't bring guns with them. I've been at a G20 Riot (in America) where the police shot gas canisters at people; if any protesters had guns, it would have not gone down well.
The reasoning behind gun ownership is more like this: if the government institutes martial law / comes to take my guns or property / commits some huge atrocity against me or my family, gun owners will be able to defend themselves. This isn't a completely accurate view, obviously, but it's the general feeling I get from growing up in the US.
As it happens many, if not most, protests are held in locations where carry is heavily restricted if not banned entirely. For example, Washington D.C. effectively has a blanket ban on citizens carrying weapons in public. New York City is only slightly less restrictive.
Even in other areas, there are myriad restrictions on where a person may carry. For instance, nearly all federal buildings, many "sensitive" locations identified by the state (such as within a quarter mile of a school), national parks, etc...
And those who carry legally are well aware of how fragile their rights are - one run-in with a policeman having a bad day can cost you your right to ever touch a gun again.
The reasoning behind gun ownership is more like this: if the government institutes martial law / comes to take my guns or property / commits some huge atrocity against me or my family, gun owners will be able to defend themselves. This isn't a completely accurate view, obviously, but it's the general feeling I get from growing up in the US.
One thing to add to this - the point of the second ammendment is not only to ensure the rights of individuals to protect themselves and their property from both other citizens and the government. It's presense is also intended to act as a reminder to those who wield the power of the government that they are the servant rather than the master.
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."
The second amendment is about ensuring you have a body of men that know how to use weapons, that you can call up in defense of the country. That's what it's for, all right there in the first half of the text, up to the comma.
"being necessary for the security of a free state" isn't high-minded idealistic philosophy on the nature of the individual human, it's meaning "to keep our country safe from those Europeans over there, should they come a-knocking". Instead of "it's there so our government will fear us", it's "it's there so our government can call on us, and we will have the right skills to serve".
On the other hand it leads to the police assuming suspects are armed and taking precautions that can lead to completely innocent and or unarmed people being shot.
As an aside, I recently realized it makes it more difficult for the government / police to quietly 'disappear' you. If you choose to resist with firearms, it won't stay off the news, or at least won't go unnoticed unless you live in the middle of nowhere. You probably won't live through it though.
If protesters in the US defended themselves with guns, the police would simply respond – fully legally (shooting police being a crime and all) – with bigger, better guns. The end result would not be pretty.
[1] http://imgur.com/a/rwRPV
[2] http://sublunarorb.it/post/52144010490/liveblog-of-the-turki...