I own guns because it is my right guaranteed by the second amendment of the U. S. Constitution. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I don’t carry a gun because I am afraid someone will attack me. My weapons make people think about how they act towards me. They cannot attack me. They cannot force me to do anything I don’t want to do. They have to talk to me. If they want me to do something they have to ask and then they have to try to convince me to do it. They have to persuade and reason with me to do it. They have to act civilized.
Thomas Paine wrote in Thoughts on Defensive War (1775).” The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like law, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property…. Horrid mischief would ensue were one-half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong.”
Some people are sociopaths and don’t understand how to be civilized. They don’t care if they hurt me or mine just as long as we do what they want. They assault, steal, enslave, and murder. The Nazis did exactly that to the Jews. If the Jews had guns and the will to fight like they do now, things would have been different in Germany.
Hitler and Stalin outlawed guns in their countries. It made it easier for the jackbooted thugs to run things. After they took away the guns they denied the people the rights of freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion. Our weapons just like in the 1700’s keeps our government from becoming tyrannical. “The people should not be afraid of the government. The government should be afraid of its people.” V from V for Vendetta.
Niccolo Machiavelli in his book “The Prince” wrote in 1532, “An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free. The Swiss are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants.”
A lot of liberals think that it would be better if no one but the police and military had guns. They want to ban private ownership of guns. That will not stop the criminal element from getting them. If I were a 100 pound woman and a gangbanger is breaking into my house at two in the morning I want something more than a baseball bat and a call to 911. Let’s say it takes the police five minutes to get here. How much damage can a big guy do in five minutes? I could be dead.
My baseball bat does not make the gangbanger and me equals. My gun makes us equals. He cannot force me to do anything. As a matter of fact unless he wants to have a shootout he had better leave. I can take down the biggest guy or group of guys attacking me.
Guns scare some people. People are usually afraid of something they don’t understand. An easy way to overcome the fear is to get training. There are pistol ranges in most towns that offer classes in weapons handling. I was never afraid of guns but I am more confident in handling them now I have taken the classes offered at my local pistol range.
One thing I learned in the classes, weapons only fire if there is a finger on the trigger or it is mishandled. There are four rules of gun handling. One, treat all guns as if they are loaded. Even if you just checked it, act like it is loaded. Two keep the weapon on safe until you are ready to fire. Three keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. Four never point a weapon at something unless you are going to destroy it. I don’t play with my gun. It is a tool not a toy.
The second amendment protects the first.
This is mostly based on Marko’s “Why the gun is civilization”
This is so true. I am only 20 years old and with the way people are so “uncivilized”, I’m already thinking about getting a permit and a gun to carry around. I agree that the gun is an equilizer of sorts.
It seems that most people who own guns start their argument about their right to own weapons based upon the second amendment. Everyone has learned about the constitution and knows they have the right to bear arms. But why the obsession? Who do you believe will be attacking you or your family?
I have lived in a middle class city neighborhood all of my life and have never been accosted with a gun by anyone. OK, there have been pan handlers and beggars but never a threat. Such threats do exist in inner city areas. Are you in such an area? How many people have threatened you or your family?
No I personally have never been threatened. But if you look way back in this blog you will find an entry where an a-hole was trying to break into our house while I was on a business trip and my wife ran them off with a gun. This was not the first time either. I don’t think anyone should have to wait until they are threatened to buy or own a gun. A gun is a tool. Do you wait until you need a screwdriver before you go buy one? Maybe. A screwdriver is a lot easier to safely handle than a loaded firearm. I suggest you get one and learn to handle it before you need to use it.
I’ve been in one situation, years ago as a teenager, when a friend’s father used his handgun to warn off a carful of strangers who had decide to try and run us off the road in a remote rural area. They chased us for maybe fifteen minutes, with no provocation, and actually bumped our vehicle’s fender once. My friend’s father had a small pistol – maybe a .25 – in his glove compartment. When he held it out the window, the strangers’ interest disappeared, and they backed off and vanished. To this day we don’t know who they were or what they wanted.
I guess I’m not quite so sure that everyone who’s read the Constitution understands that the 2nd amendment gives us the right to bear arms. If that were the case, the recent DC gun control decision in the Supreme Court would have been 9-0, not 5-4. I’m personally afraid that our government, over the next few years, is going to make a concerted effort to limit these rights. I hope I’m wrong on this.
Most of us will never need to defend ourselves or our family with a weapon. But it only takes one time. But we seem to forget that, like it or not, there is evil in the world. There are lots of dead victims out there who thought it would never happen to them. My philosophy is that it’s better to have a weapon and not need it, than to need a weapon and not have it.
People who don’t understand guns always-without exception- try to discuss gun ownership in terms of “need”. “you don’t need 10 guns”. ” You don’t need a semi-automatic. You don’t need a this or a that. Try that argument on them. “you don’t need to speak out against your government. You don’t need to peaceably assemble.
There is a reason Patrick Henry demanded a Bill of Rights. He knew, even then, that unless spelled out in ink…government would slowly erode what was once assumed to be a natural right into a privilege, and privileges can be revoked. Not so with rights.