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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. But, a firearm makes it easier
for an 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
would not 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 !!
By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)
So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can
only be persuaded,never forced !!
This is worth printing and sharing with others.......right?
Remember freedom is not free.
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