At the dawn of man- it was the brute, the strong man who ruled over his clan. He may have developed some primitive form of respect but it was based on the fact that he was the strongest and able to defeat other men and hunt for food better than the rest. As civilization progressed we started to reason with each other with our words, we made agreements that were mutually beneficial and eventually learned to trade goods and services amongst ourselves. Most men and women wanted to be treated equitably and acted in kind. As societies learned and advanced the societies that valued reason gradually overtook those that favored brute force alone. This was still accomplished with force- societies that valued reason developed better weapons and defenses and lived and prospered longer. The societies with the better weapons and stronger armies became the dominant forces and spread their ideals through conquest. These societies became more peaceful over time as prosperity increased.
The Romans became the dominant western society through force, but with that force they brought peace and prosperity and the Greco-Roman ideals of governance. Roman society was brutal compared to today but less brutal than the barbarians they conquered. It has been written that it took one thousand years after the fall of the Roman empire for Europe to regain the standard of living it had at the time of the fall. In the scope of human history peace has always come through strength first.
Relatively speaking America today is a paradise of peace and prosperity because we provide ourselves- and much of the world, security from the brute, and tyranny. We spread our ideals of equality, freedom and democracy but it is the threat of force that allows for all of it.
All human interaction can be divided into reason and force. Most of us want to live in peace and wish to be treated fairly and will treat our fellow man with fairness in return. On a macro level our military and national defense keeps our country free, in our communities the task falls to the police and criminal justice system to keep us safe. When a rational man wants to take something and is willing to use force to do it, the threat of the police and the law keep them at bay. Police and law are not perfect and the rational criminal man knows this so he may act anyway. When irrational men such as the shooters in Aurora and Sandy Hook act the law does almost nothing to deter them as they do not care about punishment.
All of us understand this concept of the law on some level. Consider something as simple as crossing the street. The law states that the pedestrian has a right of way and can severely punish a driver for hitting someone. Do we therefore cross blindly- confident that the law keeps us safe? Of course not- we look out for ourselves and look both ways to make sure drivers are stopping for us. The same relationship is true for crimes of force. Brazen criminals have already made the choice to ignore the law, the law only restrains them by catching them and ultimately confining or executing them. The best the police can hope for most of the time is to catch a criminal after their crime and let the law punish them. It is very rare that the police stop a crime in progress.
Therefore most of the responsibility of safety falls to the individual. We must be prepared to defend ourselves and our families from the man who will use force. A criminal avoids the police because he knows the police are armed and ready to exert force. In the same manner if the criminal expects force from a citizen victim they will likely avoid confrontation. If the law prevents the potential victim from carrying a gun the criminal knows they are less likely to have one and is emboldened. If the law makes it hard to have a gun in the home the criminals knows this also. We see this in London where home invasion is up dramatically since the virtual gun ban. Criminals in the US rarely rob a home when someone is home but in England the reverse is true because the criminal has more upside sometimes when the homeowner is present and can be forced to comply.
The lawful man doesn’t carry a gun looking for conflict, he carries a gun to preserve his life and freedom and that of his loved ones. The gun itself doesn’t make the man evil it just mirrors the present values of the man or woman. The gun works to equalizes the equation of force allowing the just to live in peace. For the smaller and weaker the gun is even more important. A small woman of 120lbs can equal or surpass the force from a 250lbs man who wishes to harm her. Anytime we put limitations on gun rights we have to acknowledge that we are making the vulnerable weaker.
Will the law apply more to the criminal or more to the lawful? Clearly it is the criminal who flouts the law who benefits. Most new gun control laws tip the balance to the criminal. Laws that work against the criminal are good, laws that work against the lawful under the pretext of working against the criminal are bad.
In the final equation when all is measured and balanced guns are a force for good.
