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  1. #1

    The Gun IS Civilization

    The Gun is Civilization
    by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

    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 gang banger, and a single 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 [armed] 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 weight lifter. 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.

    By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

    http://idaho-minuteman.blogspot.com/



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  3. #2
    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.
    There is a third choice, and the best choice, do it yourself.

    Also there is third way of dealing with another person, completely ignoring them.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by RickyJ View Post
    There is a third choice, and the best choice, do it yourself.

    Also there is third way of dealing with another person, completely ignoring them.
    You can't completely ignore someone willing to use force on you to get there way.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by PierzStyx View Post
    You can't completely ignore someone willing to use force on you to get there way.
    Well, you can try to ignore a bullet lodged in the brain or a knife plunged into the ribcage, but physics, anatomy, and biology will probably have something to say about that.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by GunnyFreedom View Post
    Well, you can try to ignore a bullet lodged in the brain or a knife plunged into the ribcage, but physics, anatomy, and biology will probably have something to say about that.
    Exactly. The populace needs to be armed because tyrants will not simply "go away" if you refuse to follow them. They will kill you and your loved ones.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by PierzStyx View Post
    Exactly. The populace needs to be armed because tyrants will not simply "go away" if you refuse to follow them. They will kill you and your loved ones.
    +a bunch. This is why the citizenry should always have the ability to outgun the regime.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
    what works can never be discussed online. there is only one language the government understands, and until the people start speaking it by the magazine full... things will remain the same.
    Hear/buy my music here "government is the enemy of liberty"-RP Support me on Patreon here Ephesians 6:12

  8. #7
    Semper Fi Major Caudill. Very few today deserve martial honors and respect, from this treatise it would appear that Major Caudill is one of them.

  9. #8
    Thanks for posting this.I have read this before but never saved it.Now it is in my favorites.



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