The Measure Of The State's

We Have Been Living Amidst One Of The Great Revolutions Of Human History, And We Hardly Know It: The Penetration Of The State Into Every Aspect Of Human Life And Society. Some People Regard This As Good And "progressive," Others Regard It As Tyrannical; But Either Way, It's A Fact, A Transformation As Great As, Say, The Industrial Revolution. Absolutely Nothing Is Now Beyond The Scope Of State Power.

There Can Be No Such Thing As "limited Government," Because There Is No Way To Control An Entity That In Principle Enjoys A Monopoly Of Power.

By Today's Standards King George Iii Was A Very Mild Tyrant Indeed. He Taxed His American Colonists At A Rate Of Only Pennies Per Annum. His Actual Impact On Their Personal Lives Was Trivial. He Had Arbitrary Power Over Them In Law And In Principle But In Fact It Was Seldom Exercised. If You Compare His Rule With That Of Today's U.s. Government You Have To Wonder Why We Celebrate Our Independence.

How Odd That Americans, And Not Just Their Presidents, Have Come To Think Of Their Constitution As Something Separable From The Government It's Supposed To Constitute. In Theory, It Should Be As Binding On Rulers As The Laws Of Physics Are On Engineers Who Design Bridges; In Practice, Its Axioms Have Become Mere Options. Of Course Engineers Don't Have To Take Oaths To Respect The Law Of Gravity; Reality Gives Them No Choice. Politics, As We See, Makes All Human Laws Optional For Politicians.

The Second Amendment, Like The Rest Of The Bill Of Rights, Was Meant To Inhibit Only The Federal Government, Not The States. The Framers, As The Federalist Papers Attest (see No. 28), Saw The State Militias As Forces That Might Be Summoned Into Action Against The Federal Government Itself, If It Became Tyrannical.