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Why the Gun is Civilization (vanity)
Marko Kloos

Posted on 08/15/2011 3:59:48 PM PDT by SlaveNoMore

Why The Gun Is Civilization

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

- Marko Kloos


TOPICS: History; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; gun; protection; society
Well written article. Wish I had written it.
1 posted on 08/15/2011 3:59:51 PM PDT by SlaveNoMore
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To: SlaveNoMore

Gun control is kinda like trying to solve drunk driving by making it harder for sober people to own cars.


2 posted on 08/15/2011 4:04:26 PM PDT by umgud
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46 Days And FR Is Still Short Of Its Goal

We Are In A Fight For Our Republic

Are You In Or Are You Out?

Support Free Republic

3 posted on 08/15/2011 4:05:05 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: SlaveNoMore
A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

London, last week, was a glaring example of this!

4 posted on 08/15/2011 4:11:34 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: SlaveNoMore
If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force.

Can't I just pay you?

Reason or force, that’s it.

Nice world! (Not really.)

I'd rather live in a free country, where you and I get to choose freely whether we want to interact or not, and where force (not reason) is deployed against those who by their actions threaten that freedom.
5 posted on 08/15/2011 4:18:38 PM PDT by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: SlaveNoMore

I would add money as a separate category with reason and force. I wouldn’t put money under reason. How many times have you done something unreasonable because your boss asked you to do it?


6 posted on 08/15/2011 4:20:29 PM PDT by Rad_J
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To: Rad_J
I would add money as a separate category with reason and force. I wouldn’t put money under reason. How many times have you done something unreasonable because your boss asked you to do it?

Money is persuasion. If your boss asks you to do something unreasonable, you have a choice. Do it and keep taking his money, or stop taking his money.

  1. Boss says "Call this customer" - Call is made.
  2. Boss says "Don't call this customer" - No call.
  3. Boss says "Lie to this customer" - Choice for you.
  4. Boss says "Burn down this customer's house" - A different level of choice for you.
Choice is still there until the boss pulls out his gun.
7 posted on 08/15/2011 4:38:49 PM PDT by tpmintx (The people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who VOTE for a living.)
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To: umgud

Well some people would do that with GPS speed control, Ignition interlocks on all cars that one would have to blow into before you could drive ect.


8 posted on 08/15/2011 4:39:23 PM PDT by riverrunner
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To: SuziQ

No better example exists.

It’s one of the few weapons that doesn’t require an actual use to be effective; showing it is often sufficient.


9 posted on 08/15/2011 4:49:34 PM PDT by Mach9
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To: SlaveNoMore

A well written article in the style of Thomas Sowell. Short, well written, to the point, and impossible to refute.


10 posted on 08/15/2011 5:00:00 PM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: Sergio

Logic works for me. Love Thomas Sowell!


11 posted on 08/15/2011 5:15:29 PM PDT by savagesusie
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To: SlaveNoMore

Does anyone have a current link/email to the article/author of this article, I would like to know....

Ref

http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/a-gunny-g-excerpt-why-the-gun-is-civilization/

Gunny G aka: Dick Gaines

******


12 posted on 08/15/2011 5:27:38 PM PDT by gunnyg ("A Constitution changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever...)
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To: SlaveNoMore

No Guns; No Peace

Know Guns; Know Peace


13 posted on 08/15/2011 5:38:02 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA (Let's apply the "reasonable man" standard to gun laws. How many would stand?)
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To: SlaveNoMore

If you do not own an assault weapon by now, you are a moron.

Regards, Doodles


14 posted on 08/15/2011 5:42:06 PM PDT by YankeeDoodleRebel
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To: YankeeDoodleRebel

I own several `assault weapon lookalikes’.

Does that make me a genius? Well, it sure beats being an unarmed moron.


15 posted on 08/15/2011 5:59:43 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("Deport Muslims. Nuke Mecca. Death to Islam. Freedom for mankind.")
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To: elcid1970

Any assault lookalike will do. We are on the same side my friend. You are very well informed. Ease off.

Regards, Doodle


16 posted on 08/15/2011 6:21:06 PM PDT by YankeeDoodleRebel
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To: Red in Blue PA

No Second Amendment...

Know Tyranny!


17 posted on 08/15/2011 8:05:03 PM PDT by JDoutrider
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To: YankeeDoodleRebel
If you do not own an assault weapon by now, you are a moron.

I used to, before that unfortunate fishing expedition . . .

18 posted on 08/15/2011 9:07:37 PM PDT by SlaveNoMore
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To: gunnyg

His email address is in the text under the photo at this link...

http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/about/


19 posted on 08/15/2011 10:06:37 PM PDT by deks ("...the battle of our time is the battle of liberty against the overreach of the federal government")
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To: gunnyg

Link to the article “why the gun is civilization.” by Marko Kloos...

http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/why-the-gun-is-civilization/

There’s also a good deal of information about Marko Kloos in this article/interview by Oleg Volk...

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/ccm-columns/marko-kloos/


20 posted on 08/15/2011 10:14:28 PM PDT by deks ("...the battle of our time is the battle of liberty against the overreach of the federal government")
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