How can there be bullet holes in that glass when the sign clearly says that this is a gun-free zone?
This is more right, but it is still an error. Disarming soldiers seems oxymoronic, but, of course, the greatest peril to the officers in unjust wars does not come from the putative enemy but from the sacrificial cannon foddder they purport to lead. The ruling class is thoroughly justified in its fear of the ruled, and its only recourse, it seems, is to make the ruled even more homicidally furious.
Bad idea, and the obvious solution to every political problem is to disgovern. Where people are free to pursue their own values, they find ways to get along. When “we’re all in this together!” – the crazy comes out. Want proof? If you lead a normal middle-class life, the places where you will encounter the greatest fear of armed citizens are your county courthouse and your local office of the Social Security Administration.
When incidents like Charleston and Chattanooga come up, some people say, “If only one of them had been armed…” That’s a valid observation, as you can determine by the inevitable counter-shriek of “Bloodbath!” But there is a question both sides of that debate miss:
What if every adult were armed?
If every self-responsible adult was habitually, routinely armed – and armed with redundant, complementary weapons – Charleston would not have happened at all. Chattanooga would not have happened at all. Every sort of street crime, with the exception of crimes borne of insanity, would not happen.
Would. Not. Happen.
From armed robbery to mass murder, crimes of violence are crimes of opportunity, and the dispositive opportunity, the without-which-not, is the gunman’s expectation that his victims will be disarmed. Take away that expectation and you eliminate virtually all crime.
Even better, when a truly crazy person hits that pop-goes-the-weasel crisis, as in Aurora, he will be very quickly dispatched to his happy place – saving lives in the moment and saving the taxpayers the costs of his trial, his incarceration and lifetime of absurd appellate claims.
Simply the reassertion of the inescapable responsibility of each adult to defend his own life will change all of civil society for the better. “An armed society is a polite society,” Robert A. Heinlein reminds us, but an armed society is also a uncowed society, an unbent and unbowed people.
Your best weapon, always, is the frame of mind and body that says, “Play with me and die, sucker!” If you can’t hold that frame without a firearm, you won’t hold up with one. But if you can, you will live in a very peaceful world.
Self-defense cannot be delegated. Pretending that it can is the error that puts you at risk of both mass-shooting incidents and ordinary muggings. Today is your day to learn to do better.
