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To put this subject into proper perspective, one must consider that bad things can and do happen to good people. That is why we carry health, life home and business insurance. Anyone who does not is considered a foolish person, or even is acting unlawfully ( in the case of some insurance requirement-like auto, home if mortgaged etc).
Since our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the penultimate right we all possess from the hand of our Creator, we must then consider how to insure that-when there is no practical insurance plan extant.
Some say, “well, that is why we have government- to secure our rights- and police/law enforcement courts and due process provide all that is necessary”. Bah, silliness. All of that is needful, necessary and appropriate after the fact. Granted, in this context, police can and are fully willing to stop the terror that stalks us, however, unless one is singularly wealthy and able, armed body guards or police protective details are not a reasonable solution. “I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy”.
Hence, we have the natural right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- and that entails personal responsibility. How do we positively secure this right? We personally participate in the social compact- exercising our right to vote, to work, to seek opportunity and to arm ourselves with whatever lawful tools are available and use them again, within that social compact.
When one threatens another with unlawful force, we are entitled, no, expected to resist that unlawful force to preserve our rights and most certainly our life. We, as the old natural rights authors declare, cannot forfeit our life without the loss of all rights.
So, since we (most of us)cannot reasonable carry a cop, or a protective detail, we carry a tool, an insurance policy, if you will, that a wise and prudent man will employ only as a last resort- one would “go to court’ only after personal redress of a grievance failed, so it is with the use of arms- “go to court” so to speak, when the means of protecting that which is most vital to our natural right of survival is put at unlawful risk.
I carry a firearm, not because I am afraid, but because I am not.
Interesting article. My Rotary club is having a speaker on response to an active shooter tomorrow. I doubt anything discussed here will be covered.
I own firearms because I am Jewish and no one is going to put me in a cattle car - during my life I have met too many people with numbers tattooed on their arms, and heard too many stories about what happened in Europe in the 1940s, to be naive enough to believe that it could not happen again, even in this country. Also, as an American, it is my heritage and my right. Finally, as a human being, it is my right to defend my life and my obligation to defend those of my family anyone near me whom I would consider to be under my protection.
I sometimes carry one or more firearms with me because, as Colonel Jeff Cooper remarked, “An unarmed man can only flee from Evil, and Evil is not defeated by fleeing from it.” Of course, as others have said, you cannot carry a cop with you and the police cannot be everywhere. Nor can I afford a private security detail. Since crime or terrorism can strike at any moment in any place, individuals are by default responsible for their own safety. It is not only extremely foolish, but also sheer cowardice to rely on uniformed men with guns to defend you, when you should be doing it yourself.
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