Guns & The Role of Government
You may not have seen or read the story today about the gunman in the UK who went on a shooting spree in rural England. It is an unfortunate and sad event to say the least. However, the best thing people can do is learn from the experience.
To give you a little background about the event here is an excerpt of a story covering the event:
“SEASCALE, England – A taxi driver drove his vehicle on a shooting spree across a tranquil stretch of northwest England on Wednesday, methodically killing 12 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself, officials said. The rampage in the county of Cumbria was Britain’s deadliest mass shooting since 1996 and it jolted a country where handguns are banned“
How could this happen? There are no guns allowed. How did this man get a gun and then use it to go on a shooting spree? Didn’t you just read that excerpt. Handguns are banned! Didn’t that crazy bloke read the laws? How did this bad guy get a gun? The good guys who got shot didn’t have any guns. That isn’t very fair now is it? From the headline I have been reading the past 18 months, fairness and social justice is what it’s all about. But being shot dead by a bad guy who is ignoring the very clear ban on guns is not very fair nor is it in the spirit of social justice.
What About Government Gun Control?
Well, for a moment let’s imagine this same event happened in an American city. What would be the inevitable response from the establishment media? Of course, the talking heads would say that this is proof positive that strict gun control must be implemented. Guns kill, you see. And when these people decide that today is the day they go off the deep end, if they didn’t have a gun they couldn’t kill people.
Of course, that argument is absurd. Yes, guns have the ability to kill. It’s the second premise that is complete nonsense. Major BS. If a person loses it, he or she can kill or cause harm with many weapons, tools or everyday objects / items. In fact, in China, there are a series of chilling knife killings at schools. Although, this has not been widely reported by establishment American media. Why not? The story and results are similar to the shooting spree stories. If it were reported, would the media be calling for a ban on pocket knives, steak knives and cleavers? Likely not.
The argument for gun control is terribly weak and relies on one thing. Fear. Each time there is a sensational story to make people scared the news goes on the offensive calling for the end of the second amendment and the right of free citizens to defend themselves. There is little fact or reason to back the call for gun control. It’s always the same story. “Didn’t you just see the news? This must be stopped! We must regulate guns. We must take guns away from people government deems dangerous. We must bans these evil guns. Guns kill!”
Like most things people react on what is seen and ignore the unseen or hard to see. Nobody asks the right question. What if the people on the scene were also carrying guns? Would the guns deter that individual from going off on a shooting spree? Would that person even try to pull it off in the first place? Maybe, but it is much less likely.
Let’s say that a person pulls out his gun and starts firing in a public place where it is likely others also have guns. It is a pretty safe bet that the shooting spree is going to come to an end much sooner than if the victims are disarmed.
You probably haven’t seen much from the national news in the way of stories where armed citizens stop the bad guys. Nonetheless, they exist…lots of them. In fact there are entire blogs dedicated to stories of the good things that happen because of armed citizens. In fact some have tracked stories seldom reported back to 2003. It’s enlightening.
Lessons About Gun Rights From History
The American Revolution
What would history have looked like had the people of the American colonies not been able to arm themselves? What would the result have been if the people of the colonies held the philosophy of the modern mainstream media? What if the people of the colonies handed their guns over to the British? I guess it would have turned out a whole lot differently. It was obvious that people learned that the right to arms was crucial to protecting and preserving rights from tyranny and totalitarian governments. It is a lesson that people should remember.
World War II
Everyone is familiar with Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sneak attack that killed so many of our soldiers in the Pacific. However, that was not the only option open to Japan. Although it is unthinkable for many Americans, Japan could have decided to invade the mainland. They could have launched an attack on our coastline and our very populated cities resulting in huge amounts of deaths of American civilians.
So why did the Japanese military leaders decide to attack Pearl Harbor instead?
“You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.”
- Admiral Yamamoto
Advising Japan’s military leaders of the futility of an invasion of the mainland United States because of the widespread availability of guns. It has been theorized that this was a major contributing factor in Japan’s decision not to land on North America early in the war when they had vastly superior military strength.
Often the media and government warn us of terrorists and the the threat of “terror” (some ambiguous enemy that can be broadly and conveniently defined by the powers that be – google MIAC Report). The citizens are told that they need to sacrifice their Constitutional rights and their privacy rights in the name of security against the threat of terror.
Well, what if we applied the wisdom of the above quote to the problem of terrorism? What if the government, instead of seeking to take our guns, encouraged gun ownership for the sake of protecting ourselves against possible threats of terror? What if bad guys and terrorists knew that the good guys had guns “behind every blade of grass”? It would pose a difficult threat for any bad guy.
When Do Guns Result in Deaths?
Again, the establishment will fearfully warn you about guns in the hands of your neighbors. They will warn you that guns kill and remind you of very dramatic and scary scenes. They will spout off some terrible sounding statistics that make it seem like people are being gunned down in the streets in large numbers on a regular basis. Indeed, murders are terrible, but the establishment media never compare these figures with deaths from car accidents or slips & falls. Therefore, people are not given proper perspective nor provided these stories in relative terms.
What the media never talks about regarding guns.
Yes, guns have been used as murder weapons by citizens. However the real source of death by gun are governments. It is estimated that 262,000,000 people were killed by governments in the 20th century (1900 – 1999). You did not read that wrong. Over 260 million people died at the hands of the state. Many of these deaths were by gun.
Compare this with armed citizens. The death toll of citizens dying by way of government is alarming and legitimately frightening. So, we are told it is armed citizens we must fear? If one looks at this logically it simply doesn’t add up.
The fact is that in many cases these deaths by government occurred in societies that had one thing in common. The common theme in cases where massive amounts of people died at the hands of the state is gun control. It is a story that repeats itself time and again. Where people have been killed by governments, often times in the millions, they were also countries / states where governments took their guns. That is one heck of a coincidence, isn’t it?
Guns To Protect Life, Liberty & Property
All in all, there is a lot of misinformation being spread about guns. The media spreads fear and tells one half of the story. The government spreads fear and propaganda in the attempt to make people give up their right to bear arms. However, outside of the fear mongering there is little reason applied to the gun control argument.
Time and again the arguments for stripping people of guns falls flat. History has provided many lessons of the benefits of armed citizens and the horrifying truths of unarmed citizens.
The bottom line is that the right to guns is good for free people to protect life, liberty and property.
Break Free From The Herd