Awesome inescapable logic.
Good essay, Marine. But you know the blissninnies will see it as a paradoxical excuse for violence (shudder) that they think they can hide from, right?
S/F
TC
Excellent article. He persuaded me, and he didn’t need to use force to do it.
Well stated. The logic is undeniable, even though the paranoid socialists still seek ways to disarm America for the very reason that the Second Amendment was created...
Uhhhh...because the uncivilized guys had swords?
Very good. Short and sweet.
-b-
I have to disagree. The Major left out the third way, irrational/emotional appeal.
Excellent article.
Hmm. I wonder if I can sue someone who mugs me under Anti-Trust laws...
I have often tried to explain the change in behavior with regards to responsible armed citizens. It changed my behavior and attitude unknowingly. It took a year for me to notice. But I have never been able to explain it with such eloquence as is stated above.
Prior to CCW, I was prone to be more aggressive when threatened, out of fear. My attitude was to get the upperhand ASAP if there was an imminent threat in order to survive long enough to escape. In fact, a self defense course I observed long ago was teaching women to attack viciously at the eyeballs and groin if they feared for their lives. To act aggressively immediately and as soon as the attacker was on defense, make a run for it.
With a concealed weapon, I have an alternative because I know that the odds are at least even and likely tilted in my favor. I have many more options.
I tend to be ok with behaving like a sissy to avoid confrontation or escalation as long as I am armed. I think it is because I ma confident and feel less threatened. I am very humble and polite when confrontation arises these days.
This article is just one of the reasons why there are some in society that would like to deep freeze all Marines and only thaw them during wartime....
Heck, they have already started it with Ted Williams....
Great essay Marine. Are you the author?
However, you will find that many here, while they agree with you [and I] about our unalienable right to carry arms, - will disagree with the Constitutional [and libertarian] non- aggression principle, - usually stated as "do not initiate force or fraud, or "if it harms none, do what you will, or "treat others as you'd like to be treated, or " live and let live. "
This disconnect in logic is one of the major puzzles of conservative thinking.
The same logic applies to nations as well.
"SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM." (If you wish for peace, prepare for war)
If you doubt this or lack the power to accept it, or it offends your idea of the way things "ought" to be, even for a moment, you do not even deserve freedom and you are not worthy of peace.
OUT F***ing STANDING, Marine. The Major is spot on!!! Thanks for this!
I can think of another...bribery. Bribery could be considered a form of “convincing via argument”, however. Or, from a capitalist’s point of view you could consider it nothing more than fair purchase at a mutually agreed upon price.
Then there is blackmail. Blackmail I suppose is a form of force, but not physical force. And the victim must be a willing accomplice. You can’t force someone to give in to blackmail. Well, unless you are actually using physical force or the threat of it as your method of blackmail.
But otherwise I agree with this article. Firearms aren’t called “THE GREAT EQUALIZER” for nothing. People should realize though that firearms can’t protect from everything. Crooked courts and rigged juries are one. Various predations inflicted by mega rich are another. Once the rule of law becomes corrupted to the point that armed resistance is necessary, you run the risk of total anarchy and destruction. How do you quell the violence after the rebels have disposed of the tyrants? Sometimes it isn’t so easy. Sometimes a purging of tyrants accomplishes nothing more than to make way for another gang of tyrants.
Bang! Excellent article.
ping
Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.” (A sword is never a killer, it’s a tool in the killer’s hands.) - Lucius Annaeus Seneca “the Younger” (ca. 4 BC-65 AD)
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one. - Thomas Jefferson quoting Cesare Beccaria, Criminologist 1764.
Gun control laws increase the power of government and the criminal element over the average citizen and serve no other purpose. - Robert E. Lee
A goverment that fears arms in the hands of it people should also fear ROPE! - Nathan Bedford Forrest about 1845
It is hard to oppress a population equipped to hunt animals the size of a man. — L. Neil Smith, Pallas (New York: Tor, 1993), p. 380
Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don’t have a gun, freedom of speech has no power. - Yoshimi Ishikawa, Japanese author commenting on the lack of protest with which Japanese tolerated governmental corruption, Los Angeles Times, 10/15/92
The most important freedom of all is the freedom to defend freedom.- Kevin McGehee
Gun control, the opiate of the intellectuals: covert elitism laced with self-righteousness.
Here’s the video of Suzanne Hupp testifying before congress.
http://www.washingtonceasefire.com/content/view/23/35/
Just one final statement.
I’ve been sitting here getting more and more fed up with all of this talk about these, pieces of machinery, having no legitimate sporting purpose, no legitimate hunting purpose, people, that is not the point of the second amendment!
The second amendment is not about duck hunting, and I know I’m not going to make very many friends saying this, but it’s about our right, all of our right to be able to protect our selves from all of you guys up there.
And nobody’s talked about that.
Dr. Suzanna Gratia, Killeen massacre survivor who watched as her parents were murdered because she obeyed Texas law and left her handgun locked in her car. Appearing before Rep Schumer’s committee hearings on the assault weapons ban