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Why You Should Have a Gun

Copyright 1999 Rick Vizachero

The gun represents citizenship, individualism, freedom,
self-reliance. Free persons own guns by right; slaves and subjects may
not do so.

It has been shown in modern times, that even large modern armies
with the most advanced equipment have a very hard time subjugating a
recalcitrant population armed with rifles and determination.
Afghanistan comes to mind. Talk to an Afghan freedom fighter, or
somebody who used an ancient bolt-action rifle in the Israeli war for
independence. Strike up a conversation with a U.S. veteran of Vietnam.
You will understand better that a population that refuses to surrender
is extremely difficult to tame. Freedom rides on the ownership of
guns. Without them, tyrannies large and small follow.

There are more immediate and concrete uses and needs for guns.
Many hunt for food to survive. Others choose to hunt for reasons of
economics. The nomads of Mongolia ride horses while shooting with
unsurpassed skill. Many in Alaska and other regions with much wild game
shoot the high-powered rifle as a mainstay of providing the family
dinner.

Carrying pistols for defense from human and animal predators has
been commonplace since the invention of the one-hand gun. While the
practice of using guns to defend against violent criminals wanes in some
places where previously legal and popular, such as Australia and Great
Britain, it is exploding in most of the United States. Correspondingly,
crime is dropping rapidly in the U.S. and rising ferociously in
Australia and Britain.

This deterrent effect of home-kept guns manifests in the
variation of home-invasion burglaries in Britain and the U.S. The rate
of burglary-while-occupied in Britain has risen to three times the level
of the U.S. rate. U.S. burglars now invade homes less often and less
often when anybody is home than in the old country. This clearly
results from the presence of guns. When Britain outlawed handguns while
the U.S. expanded the ability of citizens to carry concealed weapons,
assaults, robberies and burglaries mushroomed in Britain and fell off
the table in the U.S.

The presence of a heavily armed population of rifle bearers
deters invasion and war. The Swiss maintain a near-complete citizen
militia with fully automatic arms in the large majority of homes.
Israel’s heavily armed and trained population reduces the number of
terrorist shooting incidents in restaurants and other similar
gatherings; the terrorists frequently have found themselves outnumbered
by citizens with firearms, and so returned to attacking school children.

The United States has not been invaded by an army since 1812.
The U.S. Militia Act (10 U.S.C.) and 1990 Supreme Court decision
(Perpich v. DOD) reaffirming its provisions and definitions, stipulate
that most able-bodied adult Americans are always members of the militia,
subject to call to arms. Foreign invasion of the U.S. remains most
unlikely, with more than 70 million gun owners in the militia and
somewhere between 300 million and 500 million firearms of various sorts
residing in private hands.

Sport hunting, target shooting and collecting all thrill
millions and remain very popular hobbies in many places. The
psychological gratification humans get from weaponry predates the
invention of gun powder. Many still collect and train in the deployment
of knives, swords and other martial instruments. Guns are valued for
their beauty and the ingenuity and craftsmanship of their makers. The
historical importance and artistry of guns lands them in museums all
over, including such prestigious institutions as the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution.

Cowboy shooting tournaments throughout the U.S. celebrating the
guns, clothes and equipment of the 19th Century American frontier have
become the most common target shooting events in the country. These
events harken the days of people in difficult circumstances living by
codes of honor. The 19th Century American six-shooting revolver and
lever-action rifle inspire the human psyche as symbols of individuality
and freedom.

[The author is chairman of GunsSaveLives.com and a certified firearms
instructor.]