American Breakfast

That is all... Carry on

Starting Over

Well, here goes nothin. Due to an epic failure on my last webhost's part my entire website was wiped out despite my warnings that I had two accounts with the same domain name associated to them and to NOT delete them both. So here I am starting completely from scratch. I did have most of the site content backed up, but I'm not going to hassle with converting it all from WordPress to Blogger format and as often as I was updating I decided it's just not worth it to have a full fledged WordPress install so here I am for now. We'll see how things go and who knows, maybe one day I'll go back to a "real" website. But for now, here I am. Enjoy the show.

The Gun is Civilization

The following is a letter written by a supposed "Major L. Caudill USMC (Ret)". I say supposed because my research has revealed that this person is most likely fictitious. Either way, while having a real life author to credit would be desireable, it does not make these words any less true.

"The Gun Is Civilization"

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.)

So then the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced. I must say that I agree 100% with this conclusion.