When on stage near former President Donald Trump (R) at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Elon Musk said, “The Second Amendment is there to protect the First Amendment. As soon as the government can disarm the people, they can do anything they want.”
The audience, which extended well beyond the capacity of the cameras, roared in approval.
The mainstream media, which sardonically (or is it sarcastically?) includes Comedy Central, used their media outlets to jeer.
Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, tried to dismantle this basic truth by saying, “Guns don’t protect our free speech. Our free speech is protected by the consent of the governed laid out through the Constitution.”
As the Second Amendment is, to be specific, the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which was included as part of the U.S. Bill of Rights by the consent of the “governed,” this statement falls back upon itself.
So, Stewart tried again, by saying the Second Amendment is “not based on the threat of violence. It’s based on elections.”
Again, this trips over itself, as the Second Amendment is clearly written and was ratified so that we the people could protect ourselves from violence; indeed, the Bill of Rights, as with all the amendments to the Constitution, was passed by Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states, so it was and is based on elections.
Stewart, as he listened to himself, must have known he needed more words to find some ground to stand on, so he continued, “Our social contract offers many avenues to remedy these issues and allows sides to be heard and adjudicated. Guns, from what I can tell, seem to mostly protect the speech of the people holding the gun [stet].”
Hmmm, in no way does this refute Musk’s statement that the “Second Amendment is there to protect the First Amendment.” Actually, it backs Musk’s words; after all, Musk (or Trump for that matter) are hardly arguing against law and order, but are in favor of a return to impartial law and order. And guns certainly can protect, in general or in particular, an individual’s rights. This is so literally true that we can just ask any armed citizen who, unfortunately, had to defend themselves if they would have been better off disarmed.
Stewart then finishes his monologue by calling guns “a tool of intimidation.”
This can be true if a gun is in a violent criminal’s hand. It is not true if a gun is in a law-abiding citizen’s hand.
So back to Musk, this actually isn’t a new topic for him. Musk has been posting on X for months about the importance of the Second Amendment.
On Aug. 10, Musk posted, “The Brits Gave Up Their Guns. And Now Their Government Puts Them in Jail for Facebook Posts.”
On Sept. 8, Musk posted, “The right to bear arms is there to protect free speech and stop a tyrannical government from taking our rights away!”
Even Stewart, with all of his rhetorical skills, cannot talk this basic truth away.
