"A Mistake a Free People Get to Make Only Once"

Last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rehear a case in which a three-judge panel decided that the word "people" in the Second Amendment does not mean, well, actual individuals. But six judges from the circuit have written a blistering dissent to their brethrens unwillingness to reconsider the case. An excerpt from a Washington Times account:
A barbed postscript by Judge Alex Kozinski, writing alone, said history would be vastly different had American slaves or Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto been able to arm themselves.
"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed — where the government refuses to stand for re-election and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees," wrote Judge Kozinski, a native of Romania appointed by President Reagan.
"However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once," he wrote.