"A troublemaker walks through a village, drawing the ire of the people. Finally an old man confronts the outsider saying 'why are you here causing trouble'. To which the outsider replies, 'I am not causing trouble, I am unarmed, I do not have a gun or a knife or any other weapon'. The old man looks squarely at the outsider and states plainly, 'exactly, because you are unarmed you are inviting trouble where ever you go.'"
The moral of the story seems plain and true - the meek may inherit the Earth but the weak and defenseless will get walked on, trampled, robbed and perhaps killed.
Consider this from a recent article:
In the coming months, mental health experts expect a rise in theft, depression, drug use, anxiety and even violence as consumers confront a harsh new reality and must live within diminished means.
"People start seeing their economic situation change, and it stimulates a sort of survival panic," said Gaetano Vaccaro, deputy clinical director of Moonview Sanctuary, which treats patients for emotional and behavioral disorders. "When we are in a survival panic, we are prone to really extreme behaviors."
The America of today is not the America of 1929. There are significant elements within our society across all cultural, ethnic and racial lines that are immoral at their base. These people are probably incapable of behaving morally in difficult situations. The difference between now and 1929 is that there is so many more of them relative to the rest of the population. A 15% unemployment rate today could result in a social/crime/unrest situation far worse than the 25% of the Great Depression.
Should you own a gun? I cannot help but believe the answer is yes; if you are truly willing to use it to defend your life, your family and your property. There is no point in spending the money if you are too squeamish of the notion of using the thing.
There is a term that began to float around in the military after the invasion of Afghanistan and gained a lot of traction after Iraq. At first I disliked the term but eventually I came to terms with it, understood it, and accept it as part of the human condition. "Some people just need killing". In military parlance this refers to hardliners that refuse to put down their arms, back down or accept any part of the coalition program.
In considerations of defending your property, family or yourself this term has meaning as well. There are some people in the world that in the right circumstances, at the right moment will do you harm. I think we should accept that. The only thing preventing wholesale brutality by our growing immoral class is the trappings of order provided by society. Thus most of our would be violent criminals constrain their immorality to forms of criminality and immorality in the business world. As you can see I am not talking about the 850,000 gang members and other already violent criminals in the US at this point - I am talking about the middle-class guy that cheats at business, on his wife and on the golf course. It is that selfish type that will join the other criminals in hard times to threaten you and yours. Anyone with such a lack of morals and ethics in an ordered society will join the ranks of potential "people that need killing" when things go bad.
It is not an un-Christian view to think like this - God gave parents stewardship over children, a man responsibility to his wife and her to him. Exercising the right of self-defense is not contrary to Christian teachings.
As I said earlier I believe, based upon my observations that for most ordinary people living in hard situations the requirement to use a gun to defend yourself is probably at worst a once in a life time event. I believe that, certainly depending upon a persons location and luck that number may change for the individual. The point is, even if it happened just once - that one moment is life changing one way or the other - being prepared determines who has a bad day (you or the thug).
Of course you should be armed.
In the next post we will talk about weapon selection.
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