Alex Jones' Piers Morgan Rant: Radio Host Unleashes Explosive Pro-Gun Tirade

From the Huffington Post:

Jones began the segment by arguing that world governments and "the megabanks that control the planet" are conspiring to take guns away from regular citizens. "They've taken everybody's guns, but the Swiss and the American people," he said. The 2nd Amendment, he then went on to argue, was created to "protect us from tyrannical government and street thugs."

Over the course of the tirade -- during which he referenced the recent high-profile gang rape in India and Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong -- Jones' demeanor grew noticeably more irate before finally boiling over with the following declaration:

"I'm here to tell you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! Doesn't matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street, begging for 'em to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them. Do you understand?! That's why you're going to fail, and the establishment knows, no matter how much propaganda, the republic will rise again!"

More here, with video. 

Of course, Jones is a total nut, although I must admit that on more than one occasion I've found myself agreeing with what he has to say.  Morgan is a corporate establishment liberal, with much more emphasis on "corporate" and "establishment" than on "liberal," so I kind of hate him, but, as with Jones, I've also agreed with him from time to time.  And this is one of those instances.  To the best of my knowledge, Morgan hasn't called for the government to "take our firearms."  Rather, he's called for gun registration and banning only certain weapons and accessories, which seems entirely sensible to me: such action allows us to own guns, in keeping with our second amendment rights, but limits the would-be mass murderer's ability to take down huge numbers of victims in one fell swoop.  This strikes me as a moderate position, no extremes, people keeping guns, but with some limits applied.

So the thing I don't understand is why some Americans, people who aren't nuts like Jones, genuinely believe that such a position is extreme.  Indeed, there's a lot I don't understand about the gun debate.  These are some honest questions, not to be taken necessarily as arguments:

1. If gun ownership is actually about protecting us from a tyrannical government, shouldn't we be allowed to own stinger missiles and nuclear weapons?  It seems that simple firearms wouldn't stand a snowball's chance if we really needed to get our insurrection on some day, so shouldn't we be serious about this?

2. Also, what's the "well regulated militia" part of the second amendment mean?  Why don't we ever discuss this?  It suggests that the reason for citizen gun ownership is so we can have a military; it also suggests that such ownership ought to be well regulated.  But no one, not even the Supreme Court, seems to care about the phrase.  Why not?

3. Why do so many people believe that Obama wants to take away our guns?  I have heard nothing at all to that effect, ever.  Indeed, it seems like the Democrats have, until very recently, completely given up on gun control as an issue, let alone rattled their sabres about confiscating firearms.  So there has been just no rhetoric on this, no policy initiatives, no nothing.  But a sizable percentage of the nation seems absolutely convinced that it's going to happen.  What gives?

Again, these questions are not to be construed as attacks or even arguments.  They're genuine questions about genuine confusion I have on the gun debate.  To be clear, I believe the second amendment means what it says, that our right to bear arms cannot be infringed.  But I'm just not sure what that right is, exactly, or what it means to infringe on it.  And the public discourse seems short on answers.  I just can't accept that it's all or nothing, that it's either we get to have guns, in an unlimited and uncontrolled way, or we don't get to have guns at all.  It's got to be something in between, but the debate is in stark black and white.  

Help a brother out?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$