The Gun IS Civilization
Interesting take and one you don't hear much about as the Supreme Court
hears arguments for and against the Chicago, IL Gun Ban. I offer you another
stellar example of a letter
(written by a Marine) that places the proper
perspective on what a gun means to a civilized society.
Read this eloquent and profound letter and pay close attention to the
last paragraph of the letter; as well as a profound quote from Thomas Jefferson.
The Gun is Civilization by
Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)Marko Kloos from
http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/why-the-gun-is-civilization/"Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another; reason and
force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of
either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under
threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two
categories, without exception. Reason or force; that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact
through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social
interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the
personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use
reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your
threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on
equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal
footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing
with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the
disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential
attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad
force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes
it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only
true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by
choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a
mugger's potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the
young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a
civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a
successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force
monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that
otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in
several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the
physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute
lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out
of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal
force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the
stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an
octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply
wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and
easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but
because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I
cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid,
but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions
of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of
those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation...
and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act."
So, the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed
and can only be persuaded, never forced.
And now a word from Thomas Jefferson; Third President of the United
States writing in his 'Commonplace Book', 1775
"False is the idea of utility that would take fire from men because it
burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy
for evils, except destruction of liberty. The laws that forbid the carrying
of arms are laws of such nature. They disarm only those who are neither
inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws serve rather to
encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked
with greater confidence than an armed man."
