Dear Friends,
It seems to me, for a society to be truly free, the people must be armed and be able to defend themselves, and for the same reason, before a people can be enslaved they must be disarmed. While it is obvious that a slave must be disarmed, the other side of the coin, that a person be armed and able to defend themselves, is not as clear. There are many who in their ignorance believe a helpless person can be free, such thinking is muddled at best and pernicious at worst. The state of freedom, by it’s core definition, is one of independence from coercion. A disarmed person is helpless and is at the mercy of anyone armed with intent to force submission. Therefore anyone disarmed is a slave. Only those people who have the ability to defend themselves can be said to be truly free.
Ignorance is the closest ally of the despot. Many people who have never been around guns falsely seek to limit their availability. In their ignorance and fear they can’t imagine the safe use of a gun. They believe their fellow man is incapable of virtuous actions. Maybe because they know themselves and judge others by that standard. Yet millions of people own guns and have never shot anyone. In fact, those who use guns for violence are the exception, those who don’t are the rule. The would be autocrat plays on the ignorance of people to get them to go along with their own enslavement. The elite know that sowing the seeds of fear is always a means to separate people from their Rights and ignorance is a breeding ground for fear.
A gun is nothing more than a tool. That a gun is a dangerous tool is evident, but many tools are dangerous and many people are harmed by their misuse. A chain saw is a dangerous tool, ignorant people are scared by a chainsaw’s noise and potential for dramatic harm. Many people are wounded badly, and even killed by the misuse of chain saws, but there is no call from government for their banning. ATVs are very dangerous, but not as scary, many people are critically injured by their misuse, in fact more people are injured in ATV accidents than by guns, yet there is no widespread call to ban ATVs. A ladder is a very dangerous tool, in fact falls from ladders is one of the single biggest sources of personal injury, but government doesn’t try to outlaw ladders. The argument that guns are dangerous and so should be controlled only by government is false, and is designed, not to enhance safety, but to enslave the people, because a gun is a tool to fell tyrants, while a chain saw is a tool to fell trees.
Those who have a mind to enslave others know that first the victim must be disarmed. You never see a thug tossing his victim a gun before the criminal robs him do you? Governments intent on becoming tyrannical understand this all too well. Since it is usually bloody and inefficient to try to forcibly take guns from the citizenry, subterfuge becomes the means of choice. Government, for example, can create conditions where the society becomes ever more randomly violent. As the people feel less and less safe, some, perhaps many, will turn to government to become tyrannical, to prevent the violence. That government which has a mind to become despotic will be all too happy to comply. Such a government could also vilify gun owners by sending guns to a neighboring country’s villains and blame the resulting violence on their own citizens. The elite could import hundreds of thousands or millions of people who they know will engage in crime, undermine the society and sow chaos.
Violence is a reflection of a society, not the tools it has. Where people have no stake in society, they will be more prone to violence, when violence is glorified the unstable will adore the excitement of violence, the less moral a people the more acceptable violence will become, and whenever a government condones violence against the most innocent, (as in abortion)… violence will appear honorable. Violence in any society comes from the elite, the cultural elite, government elite and business elite. A society that is violent is violent because the elite have made it so, removing the tools of liberty will never remove the violence the elite sow in society, it will only make the violence more personal.
A gun is a tool and only a tool… of liberty, those who are armed are free while those without guns are slaves. Slaves to their fear, their ignorance and their government. They are dependent on another for their individual security. We all know in our hearts that where guns are outlawed only outlaws have guns, and where only outlaws have guns, you are in constant danger, but in their ignorance and fear born of that ignorance, many are willing to subject themselves and their fellows to the slavery of criminals. Violence in a society is the fault of the elite, who sow it’s seeds, nurture the culture of violence and condone it’s use. That the elite benefit from violence in enhancing their power and enslaving a nation is lost on most. Villains prey on the weak, not the strong, to be disarmed is to be weak and therefore prey, to be armed is to be strong, and therefore free, therefore, only those people who are armed and are able to defend themselves can be said to be free, those without the ability to defend themselves are slaves, in every sense of the word.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
