Whither the American State? A Statist Review on Guns, Democracy and the Insurrectionist Idea

The insurrectionist idea argues that the American Constitution, specifically the Second Amendment, guarantees the individual's right to bear arms to prevent political oppression by the government. Such arms could even include "grenades and bazookas" (p. 106). The book by Horwitz and Anderson argues that the insurrectionist idea poses a serious threat to democratic values and institutions, besides public safety. This book is a very valuable addition to the increasingly salient debate on how to balance national security concerns and democratic processes. This review presents the statist viewpoint and argues that the authors have conceded too much to the insurrectionists' distrust of the state and central government and, consequently, that they underestimate the full economic costs of the insurrectionist idea to America. Furthermore, if one were to put the insurrectionist idea in the context of the contemporary global trend of increasing state failures and rising nongovernmental force-wielding organizations of which the insurrectionist movement of the United States is a part, the danger of the insurrectionist idea would be even more evident. Finally, by focusing on refuting the historical and legal arguments of the insurrectionist idea, the authors may have missed the more important issue of identifying the social cleavages that drive the insurrectionist movement, and thereby may have produced the wrong diagnosis and prescriptions. Like most Americans, the authors probably share with the insurrectionists some level of mistrust of the state and central government. Consequently, the unique American distrust of the state and central government is an issue that the authors avoided to touch upon seriously. The American distrust of the state and its role in the economy is, however, directly related to the costs of the insurrectionist idea and should be addressed together with it. Independent of the insurrectionist idea, the American distrust of the state and central