Sebastion has an excellent post up on the actual motivation behind war, i.e. “politics by other means”. I’ve encountered that argument many times as well from the anti-gun types. The “well if the government wanted to kill you, they would and your rifle wouldn’t help”; which as Sebastion says is technically true.
But that’s not what war is really about.
But war isn’t really about killing. The mistake the left is making is failing to understand what power is. What gives another man power over you? Did you ever stop to think about that? I’m not talking here about the kind of power your wife has over you, when she makes you take out the trash. Or the kind of power your boss has over you, when he demands you get a report in on time. We all accept some modicum of social controls as part of enjoying the benefits of living as part of a society with other human beings.
Go read the whole thing.