The Constitution has several checks and balances built in. Many people know the checks and balances among the three main branches of government: The President appoints judges, Congress can impeach the President, the Supreme Court can overturn laws based on whether they’re constitutional, etc.

Most people don’t really realize that the Constitution is also designed to allow “We, The People” (and/or the states) the power our own systems of checks and balances. There are three major methods for us to control the government. The first is amending the Constitution, which is an indirect balance, as it’s actually done by our state governments, not directly by us. This one is difficult to get to work, and even if it did, the Supreme Court has decided it not only has the power to defend the constitution, but to reinterpret it at will. The second is voting; elected officials screw us over, and we vote them out in favor of someone who won’t do that. The third, and arguably most important, is encoded right into the Second Amendment and the Declaration of Independence, and the mere mention of it is likely to get me branded as a gun nut (despite the fact that I don’t even own a gun). The Second Amendment, in essence, was written not just for hunters, not just for defense against an external enemy or criminals, but also as a Reset Button.

The Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…

I hope and pray that I never see the day when things get so bad that we would need the “reset” button, but the idea that it’s there is a huge comfort to me. The United States is a wonderful place to live, and we have more freedom here than most people in history could have ever dreamed. When we give up the right to bear arms, essentially saying that we trust that the government will always be as (relatively) unoppressive as it is now, we are giving up the last thing we should give up.

I can’t find it now, but I once read a post (I think it was at The Smallest Minority, but I’m not sure) about weapons and history. The writer explained that the expense involved with swords and heavy armor and decent training made the ruling class capable of utterly destroying peasants who might think about rebelling. The bow and arrow negated much of this advantage, and the gun negated even more of it. Right now, our power over the government persists only because of the existence of the reset button provided by the Second Amendment. Yes, it’s possible (even probable) that the dissolution of that right wouldn’t immediately translate into a 1984-esque environment, but I have no real doubt that such a thing would come (probably as a direct result of the upsurge in crime that I suspect would be a result of taking away defensive weapons — see England’s attempts at disarming the public for evidence).

I don’t strongly support the 2nd Amendment because I think that the public necessarily needs guns right this second, but because I’d much rather us have guns when we don’t need them than for us to not have them if when we do.

[UPDATE: Kevin found the post I was looking for (Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them), and rightly points out that the 2nd Amendment wasn't really drafted with Hunting in mind. See the comments.]