Who needs a second amendment...

...as long as the government allows us to have a first amendment?

The founding fathers thought this stuff through, folks. They'd just fought a revolution against tyranny and set things up so that we could avoid it as long as most of us wanted. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, we were given a republic, if we could keep it. The fact that we have lasted this long, despite the apparent human tendency for a few people to do whatever they can to take all control and keep it, and for the others to allow it, is proof that Ben and the others knew what they were doing.