Elon Musk is not who I would have expected to become a major champion of our rights. 

After all, we’ve seen a lot of tech-bro billionaires fully embrace left-leaning causes including gun control. They’ve used their power to try and stigmatize guns, restrict what we can say, and a host of other problematic behaviors. I wouldn’t have expected Musk to be all that different, especially since he’s discussed Tesla’s efforts as necessary to combat climate change.

And yet, here we are.

Not only has Musk become a major champion of free speech, and not just by permitting it on X, formerly Twitter, but he’s also said something about the Second Amendment that I don’t think any congressional Democrats seem to comprehend.

On Sunday, SpaceX, X, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk countered Kamala Harris’s ongoing gun control push with an X post that framed “the right to bear arms” as the means of protecting all other rights.

“The right to bear arms is there to protect free speech and stop a tyrannical government from taking your rights away! That’s why the first thing that all tyrants do is disarm the people, just like Chavez did when he was first elected. After that, no more real elections in Venezuela,” Musk said.

Precisely.

I’ve long said that the Founding Fathers included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights as an insurance policy for the rest of our rights. You can’t oppress an armed population beyond the point they’re willing to accept.

Not like the UK, for example:

1.BREAKING!!!! 19 year old woman visited by anti terrorist unit and @MerseyPolice yesterday. They asked her about her politics, if she is right wing, and why she had an ‘Anglo Saxon’ replica helmet in the house. They refused to say what she was accused of…

They confiscated…

— WeAreFairCop (@WeAreFairCop) September 6, 2024

This was later confirmed by police:

Hi, we can confirm that the officers who attended were from Counter Terrorism Police – North West as part of enquiries into an investigation they are carrying out, thanks.

— Merseyside Police (@MerseyPolice) September 6, 2024

They showed up, got worked up about a replica helmet–and as someone who has a hobby of actually making replica armor, none of this is a threat. The steel is too thin to stop a bullet and most replicas aren’t even thick enough to protect against a bludgeoning blow–and then issued threats about making comments online.

This is not what happens in a free society and you’ll never convince me that this would happen in a world where the UK hadn’t disarmed its population.

The right to keep and bear arms hangs over the head of every would-be tyrant in the United States. They all know there is a line they can’t cross without having to deal with the repercussions. Sure, they might talk a big game about needing F-15s and tanks, but they also know that an armed society doesn’t just roll over because politicians tell them to.

Musk is right that the Second Amendment is the one that protects all of the others. That’s why it’s so important to some people to strip it of any meaning, so that we, too, could be forced into being beholden to the almighty state.

That’s a hard pass from me.