Rep. Steve King (R-IA) Explains the Second Amendment

[Francis Marion]

25. Look at experimental data.

Switzerland survived WW2 with all their military age males and civilian population intact or dying of natural causes.

No battlefield KIA, no concentation camps.

All thanks to the fact that their civil defense preparations were so thoroughly organized down to the family level, where you're likely to find at least one service rifle- and skilled shooter(s)- in the family of a military aged male, every villiage, every town.

There are easier targets elsewhere in Europe, in contrast to a free country.

Finland, twice in 20th century. In contrast to the Balkan republics. Didn't keep the invaders out, but they did keep Finland free and somewhat intact, while inflicting steady, painful losses on Russian invaders. Thanks to their regular army and militia system.

US in WW2. The US Navy was in no position to protect our coastline on the evening of December 7 as it had been before dawn that same day. Why should the western US be immune to the same Imperial land invasions which China, Korea, the Phillippines, Indochina, Burma had endured/would endure? It would be because the Japanese had condsidered invasion, but had chosen not to do so.

It's apocyphal that Admiral Yamamoto ever said his 'rifle behind every blade of grass' statement. He was KIA anyway, hence no position to provide pithy interview statements after the war. However, after 1945 when US Navy and FORMER Imperial Navy officers had a chance to compare notes during a particular joint naval exercise, a statement along those lines was given to a US officer by a former Imperial naval officer. Having looked this up years ago, I don't have details and documentation at hand, but there is some basis to the claim that our heritage of individual arms keeping was counted as at least one reason not to invade- that's just two generations ago. (From memory, I believe the US officer is now deceased, but this anecdote was documented in a community newspaper feature, maybe a Lutheran church periodical. If anybody's really curious, it could be chased down to the extent possible online into the bounds of plausibility/fact, including officer's names, place, time etc.)


The fact that the people of a particular country have access to guns and skill to use them is not a guarantee that they'll never be compelled to use them. But that fact informs the invasion calculus- and the price to be paid- by an aggressor. History instructs that popular arms keeping equates to Freedom insurance.