I think that everybody should have a fair chance to defend themselves.
I read your FAQ and saw that you were a gun advocate, and coincidentally, was
talking about the gun issue with a few people online. I thought to send you what
I wrote (because I want to know what you think) and also to suggest that you
perhaps get in touch with the local media class in university, and see if any of
the media students wanted to make a youtube video talking about the situation,
since youtube is a great tool for educating people, especially interested
youngsters that are the loudest voices in our community. Anyhow, have a read,
and feel free to contact me via email to let me know what you think (I’m curious
as to where the debate is in Australia presently).
Cheerios
George
Post:
The main arguments for and against gun regulation put me in mind of arguments
about marijuana legalization. In those discussions, both sides state their
hypothesis, counter each others arguments, bandy around insults or semantics,
and the debate comes to naught.
The only logical way to come to a reasonable conclusion is with an evidence
based argument. Instead of supposing this or that, examine societies around the
world who have implemented one or the other (legalization vs banning), have a
look at their crime rates (real and manufactured by government/lobbyists),
examine the society for any other underlying factors, and make a rational
conclusion.
So, I would consider other heavily armed nations, and see what is happening
there. One of those is Switzerland. In Switzerland, all males of military age
complete mandatory military service for a period of 6 months, and are then
required by law to keep an automatic weapon and sealed box of ammunition at home
(undergoing periodic inspection). Switzerland has one of the lowest crime rates,
gun or otherwise, on the planet.
The US is also heavily armed, and has a very high crime rate – gun related and
otherwise. (to be honest, the US is the fraud capital of the world)
With these examples in mind, it would be fair to say that guns in an of
themselves are less important than other factors – things like social cohesion,
social equality, classism, morality, or perhaps simpler things like the
concentration of gun crime within smaller demographics (especially since the US
is a large nation of 330 million, and a minority within the population would be
enough to skew gun crime statistics. Add to that open borders on the south and a
thriving narcotics trade, and you have a recipe for statistics to be
meaningless).
So then, logically, one would think that guns are okay in certain circumstances,
and not okay in other circumstances, with the obvious thing to do, if you wish
for a safer and more prosperous society, would be to change the society itself
so that it will not misuse firearms in circulation.
All in all, I very much approve of an armed society, for a couple of reasons.
The first is that I think that everybody should have a fair chance to defend
themselves if circumstances arise. I know that some will argue that some people
(perhaps more) die accidentally, and it is best to accept low rates of gun crime
in order to save those who would die in accidents, but that is bullshit. If you
play with guns and get hurt, it’s your fault, and a result of your free choice.
If you die at the point of a criminals gun and had no ability to defend yourself
despite the risk of accidents, then that to me is intrinsically unfair. Moral of
the story – guns are tools. be careful with them.
The second is that, historically, we have seen that most genocides occur when
the government disarms the people. Mao killed a lot of disarmed people, after
disarming them. I believe, with the economic upheavals we are going through
presently, that an armed population is a necessary counter force to out of
control governments.
The third is because I like being left alone. If I want to have a gun, then that
is my business, so long as I don’t hurt you. If you don’t like it, then I don’t
like that you don’t like it, and my not liking your stupid opinion has every bit
as much weight as your not liking my gun ownership opinion, in which case, you
can go find the biggest speeding bus that you can and throw yourself under it as
far as I’m concerned.
The fourth reason is that I don’t believe that government should have a monopoly
on force. Cops carry guns, and lots of cops are “bad apples”, who have killed
lots of innocent people. Given that I am smarter than entire police forces put
together, and am certainly not a bad apple, then I want the ability to defend
myself against said bad apples wearing fancy costumes with shiny badges made in
China, who think it their right to lord it over me.
Another reason (I can go on all day) is that I think it socially destructive for
a population to accept that only criminals and cops can have guns, and that cops
are our only means of defense, with an implied acceptance that “some” innocents
will die at the hands of criminals because cops cant be everywhere, all the
time. What that does is cut the balls off the entire population, and reduced
civic participation. The society I want to live in is armed to the teeth, with
cops and citizens living together cooperatively, rather than the obscene
condescension cops have over the citizenry that we have today.
George
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