Quote:
It is gravely concerning to see some people in our country are at a moment of tragedy persuaded by short sighted thinking based on fear, ignorance, social bias, impaired reasoning, intellectual dishonesty, and poor moral grounding. Shockingly we see a lack of appreciation for the many blessings which so many worldwide desperately wish they had. So many insist on turning us over to be like everyone else, discarding our principles which have elevated us above the prosperity, achievements, and stature of any nation ever formed. Some of them say that we have invited upon ourselves horrific problems because we allow individuals to empower themselves with force that can be misused against others. What such thinking ignores, or at least diminishes, is the value of the very same which offers the ability to defend the very often abused minority or individuals--violent force by consensus is by far the greater abuser. Individual means to exert force in excess of one's own ordinary means is precisely the necessary tool to elevate the rights and security of people above the events of whatever place and time one should arrive upon. To be thus armed by means afforded by modern design is not a lack of respect for life, but very much because we respect it so much as to retain the best means of preserving it against that which we know historically has assailed it.
In even our own country, and also world history spanning a dozen millenia or so, over time there have been groups of people who have despicably chosen to abuse others they dislike personally, wanted to exploit economically, disagree with religiously or politically, or wanted to rob or pillage property thereof. They have done so by simple control of numbers and the lack of moral conscience to treat their fellow man with grace and fairness. Often that was even achieved under presumably lawful authority much the same (and occasionally worse) as it was under criminal action. Irish immigrants, the Native American tribes, Americans of African descent, Italian immigrants, Mexican and Chinese..the list is as varied as the times and places where subjugation by law, social exclusion, and brute force have occurred. However, largely we think of it as being comparitvely rare in the overall course of our experience. By comparison to the rest of the world over time and all of the places, yes, it is, and for two principle reasons: we are a nation founded on the very principles of individual liberty and the sanctity of human rights, and that as a necessary guarantee of that, we have Constitutional recognition of our fundamental and essential right to be able to prevail against threats from others who would take that away. That threat could be wearing a white pointy hood of a KKK outfit, a black mask, the uniform of a foreign army or a private security contractor, or even a uniform of authority we in every other circumstance otherwise respect. They could be coming to take your house or your business because someone's idea is that you own too much and it isn't fair that someone else has less, so the government should take it. They could be coming to your church because they don't think your religion should be allowed to meet because they consider it hateful. They could be coming to your house to force you to leave the neighborhood because someone of your skin color or the ideas you have doesn't suit the other people on your block.Exactly to whom the displeasure of public opinion or politics or the appetites of criminal predation shift their desire to disrupt, destroy, and devour changes upon mere whim of the times. They have the power of the majority in either case.
No amount of wishful thinking or "progress" changes that aspect of humanity. No utterance of "That won't happen here!" or "But we're better than that!" applies, as it already has happened and does happen, no matter what amount of "enlightenment" or "tolerance" and "diversity" you might believe in somehow shields us from basic sinful human nature.
You do, however, have the right to prevail against that action and live your life where and as you choose, by means of effective defense against sizeable threats. Whether it's one burglar with a baseball bat or ten people with burning torches (or crosses) and shotguns or two dozen or more with...well, shall we say more than that, the value of your human life and that of those you love, the basic essential human rights we have, the property which the fruits of your work and gifts of love from others bless us with, and the ability to pursue an abundant life with joy is all worth preserving against any force that would maliciously take it. It is because we have that ability that we do not see deprivation and harm more often than we do, or live lives under domination and repression which would not even allow us to see what we could have had--be it from one, ten, twenty, twenty thousand, or three hundred million imposing their will upon us.
Freedom not maintained or attainable by the individual is not freedom for long. It is only as good as the means by which one can assure it--not just in some post apocalyptic case of the world gone wrong, but in the world we live in now and always have since the dawn of civilization. We are not the exception to history in any other other way than we are the country of liberty and the country of individual rights which we the individual people hold and we the individual people secure, which has made us the most blessed nation on Earth ever.
Kinda strange that it didn't get a response from anyone disagreeing with it. My guess is that the anti gun people have too low of a reading comprehension level.