I wouldn't agree with that statement at all.
As Max Weber pointed out, the whole point of the nation state (esp. democracy) is that it has the legitimate monopoly of violence.
If people are as armed as the apparatus of the state, then the country doesn't work as a cohesive entity as each group within the country (be they religious, ethnic, regional, political etc) then has the legitimate right to violently attack others.
Arm the public and you deminish the state and the democratic institutions that maintain it.
/plolotics blog
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Fishcat Difficult difficult lemon difficult., Mon 1 Dec 2008, 9:16,
Reply)