What Is Worse: Tyranny of the Government or Tyranny of the Mob?

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worshiped
Will be gone

And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of our wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

--Pete Townsend, "Won't Get Fooled Again"

Lately, I have been hearing a lot about how we need to arm ourselves to protect against "King Barry" and the impending government tyranny.    One recent article was titled "IRS intimidation proves Second Amendment needed to stop government tyranny."    You can find it here.   Let me see if I can get this straight.  Some IRS bureaucrats in Cincinnati delayed processing dubious applications for tax exempt status so our response should be to rise up in armed rebellion?    

The Second Amendment insurrectionist advocates speak of the people of the whole as a militia entitled to arm themselves and make war against the federal government.    However, they don't seem to have thought this through.    If every man is a militia unit under his own control, who is to say that the person breaking into your house is not a militia protecting your property from government tyranny by taking it away from you?   

The American people do not agree on much.   If we were to arm everyone and set them loose to act as an anti-government militia, who would they fight?   They probably would not fight against the army or the national guard because they would be outgunned.   Instead, you could see them shooting people who used their First Amendment freedom to place an Obama bumper sticker on their car or anyone known to work for the IRS.

We would likely break down into Red State and Blue State militias fighting for control of territory.   If we did not have an all-out civil war, then we might have a repeat of Bloody Kansas.   If you don't know your history, click here to read Mark Nuckols' excellent article.

Revolutions tend to be ugly things.   People get killed and property rights get trampled.   See, for example, the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution.   In the end, the most violent people tend to take control and liberty is extinguished.    

When I hear someone say that we need to take up arms to protect ourselves against tyranny, I wonder who is going to protect me from the mob?  What if my liberal neighbor thinks I drive too many gas-guzzling cars or my conservative neighbor gets angry that I didn't replace the American flag in front of my house when it wore out.    What if someone thinks my daughter plays her music too loud or thinks that I don't mow my lawn often enough?   What if someone doesn't realize that Dick the Butcher was a bad guy and acts on Shakespeare's advice to first thing, let's kill all the lawyers?   

I would much rather trust my fate to a government that does stupid things on a regular basis (which is to say, the government we have) rather than an angry mob looking to pillage and plunder.