Reply #45: The Fact Is, Sir, Widespread Political Violence Tends To Favor Tyrants In Their Rise

[The Magistrate]

The idea that an armed populace is a preventative against tyranny is not borne out by examination of history, and certainly not by the records of the figures you proclaim as illustrative of your belief to the contrary. There are several reasons why this is so. One of the major ones is that in actual political life, there is never a clean divide in which 'the people' are on one side and 'the government' on the other. Rather, it is always the case when political life in a nation reaches a point of violent confrontation that there are great divisions among the people, and also among their government and its agents. Each side of the divide will see itself as the true exponents of the people's will, and their opponents as the most dangerous enemies of that is best for the people. It is that, after all, that they will be wiling to kill and die over.