The Well Regulated Militia
By Mitch Berg
This slipped past me over the summer; the Czech Republic broke with most of their bovine European neighbors and voted to recognize the human right to keep and bear arms to defend self, property and community: (Page is in Czech; most browsers have some sort of auto-translation feature these days…)
September 12th, 2017 at 7:54 am
Mitch, this did not appear in the NYT, WaPo, or even the Star Tribune. This is not news, and you know it.
September 12th, 2017 at 9:20 am
The attitude in the Republic is that guns are just another piece of property; the idea that you need a “right” to own a gun there is as bizarre as needing a “right” to own a car. Guns are an important part of their national history as they were instrumental in defeating the multiple Papal crusades launched against them during the Bohemian Reformation (100 years before Martin Luther) when the Czechs were among the first to use firearms in battle. I’ve written here before that the only times in Czech history that guns were banned were under the Nazis and under the Communists.
That said, the right to self-defense is a bit more complicated. As it was explained to me, you can have a gun, and you can shoot someone who has broken into your home, but when the police arrive, “You better have the other guy’s knife sticking out of your leg.”