*** BRIEF Q & A.ON RKBA #nj2as #tcot Why do we humans possess the Right to Keep and Bear Arms? The single most important question you can ask people with regard to their position on RKBA is, “Who owns your life”? If the answer is “God”, then the follow up question is “Who is responsible for your life while you are here on earth”? If the answer is still “God”, then wish them good fortune and walk away. Keep in mind that most religions preach trust in God, but also require personal responsibility for actions performed while in this life. If the answer is “I am”, then the obvious follow-up question is “Do you have the right to defend your life from the initiation of the use of force”? If the answer to THAT question is “No”, the individual is either trying to deceive you or themselves, is not in touch with reality, or has been immunized against logic. Don’t waste your time any further. If the answer is “Yes”, then the next obvious question is “*HOW* may one defend their life against the initiation of LETHAL force”? The answer at this point SHOULD be “By any means necessary”, if not, ask “Why not”? [If an individual admits that they own their own life and/or are responsible for it, how can they honestly deny the right to use lethal force to DEFEND against lethal force? It is not logically consistent. the only other option is to risk death. While that *IS* an option, it certainly is not a viable one by any definition.] If the individual tries to say it is the job of the police to protect them, then ask them what one should do if attacked with lethal force (knife, gun, baseball bat, crowbar, etc.) and the police are not available? If at this point the person denies that they should be able to use lethal force to repel lethal force, you are talking to a “victim” – again, don’t waste your time. Once you have established with the individual that lethal force is a legitimate response to the initiation of lethal force against them, you should be able to justify being prepared to defend against lethal force with the best tool available – a firearm. [From this point on, we are usually just haggling over situations involving accidents and intentional shootings by criminals and crazy people. It is important to expose these things for EXACTLY what they are – natural occurrences. That may sound cold, but let’s think about it. Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Floods, Fires, and so on all cause violent deaths. We don’t LIKE it. We try to do what we can to prevent deaths from such events, and yet they still occur because they are a natural part of life (natural disasters for sure – but STILL natural). Humans are ALSO part of nature. Some go bad. They lose touch with reality, or react to negative circumstances in violent ways. We can no more prevent those things from happening than we can prevent Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Floods, Fires and so on. *WHY* does anyone think that we can somehow magically prevent bad people and crazies from creating their special brand of havoc. We cannot. All we can do is be as prepared as possible to deal with those situations should they occur. The threat may come from a single criminal, a gang of criminals, or even from our own government. The threat does not EVEN necessarily need to be limited simply to causing our death. It could just as well be a threat to our FREEDOM, for without FREEDOM humans cannot survive *AS* human. This extends to threats to our loved ones and vital property. We have as much right to defend our loved ones as we do ourselves and we cannot live without vital property. I hope these points will serve at least as a good starting point from which to develop your own thoughts and responses. There *ARE* no single “right” answers. It is very important that we continue to educate ourselves on a regular basis. I suggest a reading of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” as an excellent philosophical reference point behind many of my assumptions. We all need to understand *WHY* our lives as humans are so precious, and WHY it is moral even to take a life in order to protect yourself from the INITIATION of force against you. Now, I am not naïve enough to think this approach will work with gun-owner control advocates. They have their own agenda. However, this may help when speaking with individuals who have not really put much thought into the question. It helps to show that this is NOT about gun lust and that there are legitimate, life affirming reasons for being armed and prepared. It wont win over everyone, but it may help in some situations and I have been asked to share it with you. Please feel free to add your best arguments, comments, criticisms, corrections, etc. This is a conversation worth having in many situations.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 23:30:53 +0000
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