Force vs. Persuasion
Or
BUY A GUN !
THIS IS
THE BEST WORDED PRO-GUN ARGUMENT I HAVE EVER READ.
"The
Gun Is Civilization"
by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
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 trying to convince
me via fact, reason, and rational argument, or, by attempting to try to force
me to do your bidding under threat of physical violence and harm. 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, as paradoxical as it may sound to
some, the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal weapon,
in our society that being the firearm,. 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 of violence and 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 monopoly on the use of force amongst the people by disarming all
the other members of the society for him.
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 physical 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, which normally it is not (without the weapon). 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.
Therefore, when I carry a gun, I do not do so because
I am looking for a fight, but because I am looking to be left alone in order that
I may enjoy my personal freedom. The gun at my side means that I cannot be easily
taken advantage of by others (criminals), or forced to do anything that I
perceive is wrong or morally offensive (to me), only persuaded by reason. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but
because it enables me to be unafraid in the enjoyment of my God given Rights. 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.)
Perhaps the greatest civilization is one where all
citizens are equally armed and therefore can only be persuaded, and never forced,
to act, by anyone !
The
BUY A GUN
or you will be forced to live (and die) as a victim, later!