"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
I am going to go out on a limb and say that I know of no other developed nation whose constitution states (to paraphrase) - "if all else fails, arm yourself and take back your country". I know Canada's constitution doesn't have anything like that and I would venture that the other British Commonwealth countries were not instructed in this manner either. Granted, most Americans view Canadians as being docile librarians who happen to like hockey...
The true irony of the U.S. therefore is that of all the developed nations, its people have the least trust for their own government, yet at the same time, they are also the most willing to impose their government's policies upon the rest of the world. If Americans don't like or trust their own government, what the hell do they think the rest of the world thinks about it?
Meanwhile, in creating the Second Amendment above, the Founding Fathers did not evince much confidence in their newly founded democracy. Under the law of unintended consequences, they inadvertently created the most paranoid and overarmed society in the developed world, for whom insurrection has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
