tug-o'-war

"Law-abiding citizens who are getting permits because they think the government is coming to take their guns away are just wrong - it's an absurd, cartoonish myth." Brady campaign spokesman Peter Hamm, commenting to the AP on the 67% jump in "Right-to-Carry applications in the state of Florida. (Source: America's First Freedom, October 2009, p.16)

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Oh, Brady Campaign you democratic beacon of wisdom, you...you're right, the government is not aiming to confiscate people's firearms. And to evidence the government's non-intentions you label this belief a cartoonish myth in order to dissuade the populace from applying for right-to-carry permits. But if a person carries a handgun without a permit a government agent will exercise his duty to be on site with a gun in the holster, if not in the hand. That's if one gets there at all, since it's been ruled by more than one court that no level of government and no public servant bears any legal duty to protect an individual.

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7.15.2005 Supreme Court of the United States No. 04-278 Town of Castle Rock, Colorado, Petitioner, v. Jessica Gonzalez: It is a well-settled fact of American law that the police have no legal duty to protect any individual citizen from crime, even if the citizen has received death threats and the police have negligently failed to provide protection.

Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. 1981): ...a government and its agencies are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular citizen...

Riss r. New York, 22 N.Y. 2d 579, 293 N.Y. 2d 897, 240 N.E.2d 806 (1958): What makes the City's position particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, [Ms. Miller] did not carry any weapon for self-defense. Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of NY which now denies all responsibility to her.

Lynch v. N.C. Dept. of Justice, 376 S.E. 2nd 247 (N.C. App. 1989): Law enforcement agencies and personnel have no duty to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others; instead their duty is to preserve the peace and arrest law breakers for the protection of the general public.

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No, the government does not want to take people's guns away. All it wants is for us to ask permission to have these at the ready, while at the same time disowning the responsibility to protect us from crazy people, which perceived responsibility it does its best to ingrain into our consciousness.