back to indexA_Nation_of_Cowards_by_Jeffrey_Snyder
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at lakings.com/promotions and create lasting memories with your little ones. A Nation of Cowards 00:00:16.080 |
published in fall of 1993 in the Public Interest, a quarterly journal of opinion published by 00:00:22.160 |
National Affairs Inc. Our society has reached a pinnacle of self-expression and respect for 00:00:28.560 |
individuality rare or unmatched in history. Our entire popular culture, from fashion magazines to 00:00:35.360 |
the cinema, positively screams the matchless worth of the individual and glories in eccentricity, 00:00:42.880 |
non-conformity, independent judgment, and self-determination. This enthusiasm is reflected 00:00:49.280 |
in the prevalent notion that helping someone entails increasing that person's self-esteem, 00:00:54.720 |
that if a person properly values himself, he will naturally be a happy, productive, 00:00:59.920 |
and in some inexplicable fashion, responsible member of society. And yet, while people are 00:01:07.200 |
encouraged to revel in their individuality and incalculable self-worth, the media and the law 00:01:13.120 |
enforcement establishment continually advises us that, when confronted with the threat of lethal 00:01:18.320 |
violence, we should not resist, but simply give the attacker what he wants. If the crime under 00:01:24.000 |
consideration is rape, there is some notable waffling on this point, and the discussion quickly 00:01:29.360 |
moves to how the woman can change her behavior to minimize the risk of rape and the various ridiculous, 00:01:34.160 |
non-lethal weapons she may acceptably carry, such as whistles, keys, mace, or that weapon that really 00:01:40.880 |
sends shivers down a rapist's spine, the portable cellular phone. Now, how can this be? How can a 00:01:47.680 |
person who values himself so highly calmly accept the indignity of a criminal assault? How can one 00:01:54.800 |
who believes that the essence of his dignity lies in his self-determination passively accept the 00:02:00.400 |
forcible deprivation of that self-determination? How can he quietly, with great dignity and poise, 00:02:09.360 |
simply hand over the goods? The assumption, of course, is that there is no inconsistency. 00:02:15.840 |
The advice not to resist a criminal assault and simply hand over the goods is founded on the 00:02:20.240 |
notion that one's life is of incalculable value and that no amount of property is worth it. 00:02:24.880 |
Put aside for a moment the outrageousness of the suggestion that a criminal who proffers 00:02:30.000 |
lethal violence should be treated as if he has instituted a new social contract, 00:02:34.160 |
I will not hurt or kill you if you give me what I want. For years, feminists have labored to 00:02:39.360 |
educate people that rape is not about sex, but about domination, degradation, and control. 00:02:45.200 |
Evidently, someone needs to inform the law enforcement establishment and the media 00:02:48.960 |
that kidnapping, robbery, carjacking, and assault are not about property. 00:02:53.360 |
Crime is not only a complete disavowal of the social contract, but also a commandeering of 00:02:59.760 |
the victim's person and liberty. If the individual's dignity lies in the fact that he is a 00:03:05.120 |
moral agent engaging in actions of his own will, in free exchange with others, then crime always 00:03:11.360 |
violates the victim's dignity. It is, in fact, an act of enslavement. Your wallet, your purse, 00:03:18.160 |
or your car may not be worth your life, but your dignity is, and if it is not worth fighting for, 00:03:23.680 |
it cannot hardly be said to exist. The Gift of Life 00:03:27.920 |
Although difficult for modern man to fathom, it was once widely believed that life was a gift 00:03:33.360 |
from God, that to not defend that life when offered violence was to hold God's gift in contempt, 00:03:39.040 |
to be a coward, and to breach one's duty to one's community. A sermon given in Philadelphia in 1747 00:03:45.600 |
unequivocally equated the failure to defend oneself with suicide. "He that suffers his life 00:03:51.760 |
to be taken from him by one that hath no authority for that purpose, when he might preserve it by 00:03:56.720 |
defense, incurs the guilt of self-murder, since God hath enjoined him to seek the continuance of 00:04:02.400 |
his life, and nature itself teaches every creature to defend itself." Cowardice and self-respect have 00:04:10.800 |
largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are offered self-esteem as the 00:04:16.880 |
bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. Self-respect implies that one recognizes standards 00:04:23.920 |
and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. Self-esteem simply means 00:04:30.160 |
that one feels good about oneself. Dignity used to refer to the self-mastery and fortitude with 00:04:36.560 |
which a person conducted himself in the face of life's vicissitudes and the boorish behavior of 00:04:42.480 |
others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a 00:04:48.640 |
discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption 00:04:54.000 |
that we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. 00:04:59.200 |
These are signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality of our character, 00:05:04.160 |
the hollowness of our souls. It is impossible to address the problem of rampant crime without 00:05:11.200 |
talking about the moral responsibility of the intended victim. Crime is rampant because the 00:05:16.400 |
law abiding, each of us, condone it, excuse it, permit it, submit to it. We permit and encourage 00:05:24.160 |
it because we do not fight back. Immediately, then and there, where it happens. Crime is not 00:05:29.520 |
rampant because we do not have enough prisons, because judges and prosecutors are too soft, 00:05:34.320 |
because the police are hamstrung with absurd technicalities. The defect is there in our 00:05:40.400 |
character. We are a nation of cowards and shirkers. Do you feel lucky? In 1991, when then Attorney 00:05:50.560 |
General Richard Thornburrow released the FBI's annual crime statistics, he noted that it is now 00:05:56.880 |
more likely that a person will be the victim of a violent crime than that he will be in an auto 00:06:01.280 |
accident. Despite this, most people readily believe that the existence of the police relieves them of 00:06:07.040 |
the responsibility to take full measures to protect themselves. The police, however, are not 00:06:11.920 |
personal bodyguards. Rather, they act as a general deterrent to crime, both by their presence and by 00:06:18.160 |
apprehending criminals after the fact. As numerous courts have held, they have no legal obligation 00:06:23.680 |
to protect anyone in particular. You cannot sue them for failing to prevent you from being the 00:06:28.400 |
victim of a crime. Insofar as the police deter by their presence, they are very, very good. 00:06:34.720 |
Criminals take great pains not to commit a crime in front of them. Unfortunately, the corollary is 00:06:41.520 |
that you can pretty much bet your life—and you are—that they won't be there at the moment you 00:06:47.920 |
actually need them. Should you ever be the victim of an assault, a robbery, or a rape, you will find 00:06:54.240 |
it very difficult to call the police while the act is in progress, even if you are carrying a 00:06:58.960 |
portable cellular phone. Nevertheless, you might be interested to know how long it takes for them 00:07:04.160 |
to show up. Department of Justice statistics for 1991 show that, for all crimes of violence, 00:07:10.480 |
only 28% of calls are responded to within five minutes. The idea that protection as a service 00:07:17.040 |
people can call to have delivered and expect to receive in a timely fashion is often mocked by 00:07:22.480 |
gun owners, who love to recite the challenge, "Call for a cop, call for an ambulance, and call 00:07:28.080 |
for a pizza. See who shows up first." Many people deal with the problem of crime by convincing 00:07:34.720 |
themselves that they live, work, and travel only in special "crime-free" zones. Invariably, they 00:07:40.880 |
react with shock and hurt surprise when they discover that criminals do not play by the rules 00:07:46.240 |
and do not respect these imaginary boundaries. If, however, you understand that crime can occur 00:07:52.480 |
anywhere, at any time, and if you understand that you can be maimed or mortally wounded in mere 00:07:57.920 |
seconds, you may wish to consider whether you are willing to place the responsibility for 00:08:02.000 |
safeguarding your life in the hands of others. Power and Responsibility 00:08:06.960 |
Is your life worth protecting? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it? 00:08:14.240 |
If you believe that it is the police's, not only are you wrong, since the courts universally rule 00:08:19.920 |
that they have no legal obligation to do so, but you face some difficult moral quandaries. 00:08:26.080 |
How can you rightfully ask another human being to risk his life to protect yours when you will 00:08:33.040 |
assume no responsibility yourself? Because that is his job and we pay him to do it? Because your 00:08:39.040 |
life is of incalculable value but his is only worth the $30,000 salary we pay him? If you believe it 00:08:45.840 |
reprehensible to possess the means and will to use lethal force to repel a criminal assault, 00:08:51.680 |
how can you call upon another to do so for you? Do you believe that you are forbidden to protect 00:08:57.440 |
yourself because the police are better qualified to protect you? Because they know what they are 00:09:02.080 |
doing but you're a rank amateur? Put aside that this is equivalent to believing that only concert 00:09:08.400 |
pianists may play the piano and only professional athletes may play sports. What exactly are these 00:09:14.400 |
special qualities possessed only by the police and beyond the rest of us mere mortals? 00:09:19.280 |
One who values his life and takes seriously his responsibilities to his family and community 00:09:26.400 |
will possess and cultivate the means of fighting back and will retaliate when threatened with death 00:09:31.920 |
or grievous injury to himself or a loved one. He will never be content to rely solely on others 00:09:37.680 |
for his safety or to think he has done all that is possible by being aware of his surroundings 00:09:42.320 |
and taking measures of avoidance. Let's not mince words. He will be armed, will be trained in the 00:09:48.640 |
use of his weapon, and will defend himself when faced with lethal violence. Fortunately, there is 00:09:55.200 |
a weapon for preserving life and liberty that can be wielded effectively by almost anyone. 00:09:59.200 |
The handgun. Small and light enough to be carried habitually, lethal but unlike the knife or sword, 00:10:06.240 |
not demanding great skill or strength, it truly is the great equalizer. Requiring only 00:10:13.280 |
hand-eye coordination and a modicum of ability to remain cool under pressure, it can be used 00:10:18.480 |
effectively by the old and the weak, against the young and the strong, by the one against the many. 00:10:24.720 |
The handgun is the only weapon that would give a lone female jogger a chance of prevailing against 00:10:29.840 |
a gang of thugs intent on rape, a teacher a chance of protecting children at recess from a madman 00:10:36.080 |
intent on massacring them, a family of tourists waiting at a midtown subway station the means to 00:10:42.160 |
protect themselves from a gang of teens armed with razors and knives. But since we live in a society 00:10:49.360 |
that by and large outlaws the carrying of arms, we are brought into the fray of the great American 00:10:54.880 |
gun war. Gun control is one of the most prominent battlegrounds in our current culture wars, 00:11:01.120 |
yet it is unique in the half-heartedness with which our conservative leaders and pundits, 00:11:05.520 |
our conservative elite, do battle and have conceded the moral high ground to liberal 00:11:10.560 |
gun control proponents. It is not a topic often written about or written about with any great 00:11:17.040 |
fervor by William F. Buckley or Patrick Buchanan. As drug czar, William Bennett advised President 00:11:23.360 |
Bush to ban assault weapons. George Will is on record as recommending the repeal of the Second 00:11:29.600 |
Amendment, and Jack Kemp is on record as favoring a ban on the possession of semi-automatic assault 00:11:35.040 |
weapons. The battle for gun rights is one fought predominantly by the common man. The beliefs of 00:11:41.680 |
both our liberal and conservative elites are in fact abetting the criminal rampage through our 00:11:46.240 |
society. Selling crime prevention. By any rational measure, nearly all gun control proposals are 00:11:54.160 |
hokum. The Brady Bill, for example, would not have prevented John Hinckley from obtaining a 00:11:58.320 |
gun to shoot President Reagan. Hinckley purchased his weapon five months before the attack, 00:12:03.200 |
and his medical records could not have served as a basis to deny his purchase of a gun, 00:12:07.360 |
since medical records are not public documents filed with the police. 00:12:10.560 |
Similarly, California's waiting period and background check did not stop Patrick Purdy 00:12:16.320 |
from purchasing the assault rifle and handguns he used to massacre children during recess in a 00:12:21.840 |
Stockton schoolyard. The felony conviction that would have provided the basis for stopping the 00:12:26.320 |
sales did not exist, because Mr. Purdy's previous weapons violations were plea bargained down from 00:12:31.840 |
felonies to misdemeanors. In the mid-60s, there was a public service advertising campaign 00:12:37.200 |
targeted at car owners about the prevention of car theft. The purpose of the ad was to 00:12:42.160 |
urge car owners not to leave their keys in their cars. The message was, "Don't help a good boy go 00:12:47.920 |
bad." The implication was that, by leaving his keys in his car, the normal, law-abiding car owner 00:12:54.800 |
was contributing to the delinquency of minors who, if they just weren't tempted beyond their limits, 00:13:00.480 |
would be good. Now, in those days, people still had a fair sense of just who was responsible for 00:13:06.800 |
whose behavior. The ad succeeded in enraging a goodly portion of the populace and was soon dropped. 00:13:12.160 |
Nearly all of the gun control measures offered by Handgun Control Inc. (HCI) and its ilk embody the 00:13:19.840 |
same philosophy. They are founded on the belief that America's law-abiding gun owners are the 00:13:25.120 |
source of the problem. With their unholy desire for firearms, they are creating a society awash 00:13:30.720 |
in a sea of guns, thereby helping good boys go bad and helping bad boys be badder. This laying 00:13:37.840 |
of moral blame for violent crime at the feet of the law-abiding, and the implicit absolution of 00:13:43.840 |
violent criminals for their misdeeds, naturally infuriates honest gun owners. The files of HCI 00:13:51.440 |
and other gun control organizations are filled with proposals to limit the availability of 00:13:55.920 |
semi-automatic and other firearms to law-abiding citizens, and barren of proposals for apprehending 00:14:01.760 |
and punishing violent criminals. It is ludicrous to expect that the proposals of HCI or any gun 00:14:08.720 |
control laws will significantly curb crime. According to Department of Justice and Bureau 00:14:14.160 |
of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) statistics, fully 90% of violent crimes are committed without 00:14:20.480 |
a handgun, and 93% of the guns obtained by violent criminals are not obtained through 00:14:25.280 |
the lawful purchase and sale transactions that are the object of most gun control legislation. 00:14:30.080 |
Furthermore, the number of violent criminals is minute in comparison to the number of firearms 00:14:36.000 |
in America, estimated by the ATF at about 200 million, approximately one-third of which are 00:14:41.520 |
handguns. With so abundant a supply, there will always be enough guns available for those who 00:14:46.880 |
wish to use them for nefarious ends, no matter how complete the legal prohibitions against them, 00:14:52.080 |
or how draconian the punishment for their acquisition or use. No, the gun control 00:14:57.440 |
proposals of HCI and other organizations are not seriously intended as crime control. 00:15:02.320 |
Something else is at work here. The Tyranny of the Elite 00:15:08.960 |
Gun control is a moral crusade against a benighted, barbaric citizenry. This is demonstrated not only 00:15:17.600 |
by the ineffectualness of gun control in preventing crime, and by the fact that it focuses on 00:15:22.320 |
restricting the behavior of the law-abiding rather than apprehending and punishing the guilty, but 00:15:27.360 |
also by the execration that gun control proponents heap on gun owners and their evil instrumentality, 00:15:34.080 |
the NRA. Gun owners are routinely portrayed as uneducated, paranoid rednecks fascinated by and 00:15:41.520 |
prone to violence, i.e. exactly the type of person who opposes the liberal agenda and whose moral 00:15:47.520 |
and social "re-education" is the object of liberal social policies. Typical of such "bigotry" is New 00:15:54.800 |
York Governor Mario Cuomo's famous characterization of gun owners as "hunters who drink beer, 00:16:00.240 |
don't vote, and lie to their wives about where they were all weekend." Similar vituperation is 00:16:06.960 |
reigned upon the NRA, characterized by Senator Edward Kennedy as the "pusher's best friend," 00:16:13.440 |
lampooned in political cartoons as standing for the right of children to carry firearms to school, 00:16:20.320 |
and in general, portrayed as standing for an individual's God-given right to blow people 00:16:25.280 |
away at will. The stereotype is, of course, false. As criminologist and constitutional lawyer Don B. 00:16:33.120 |
Cates Jr. and former HCI contributor Dr. Patricia Harris have pointed out, "Studies consistently 00:16:39.200 |
show that, on the average, gun owners are better educated and have more prestigious jobs than 00:16:44.800 |
non-owners. Later studies show that gun owners are less likely than non-owners to approve of 00:16:50.560 |
police brutality, violence against dissenters, etc." Conservatives must understand that the 00:16:57.520 |
antipathy many liberals have for gun owners arises in good measure from their statist utopianism. 00:17:03.360 |
This habit of mind has nowhere been better explored than in the Republic. There, Plato 00:17:09.520 |
argues that the perfectly just society is one in which an unarmed people exhibit virtue by minding 00:17:16.080 |
their own business and the performance of their assigned functions, while the government of 00:17:20.240 |
philosopher-kings, above the law and protected by armed guardians, unquestioning in their loyalty 00:17:26.000 |
to the state, engineers, implements, and fine-tunes the creation of that society, aided 00:17:32.320 |
and abetted by myths that both hide and justify their totalitarian manipulation. 00:17:40.160 |
The Unarmed Life When columnist Carl Rowan preaches gun control and uses a gun to defend his 00:17:47.840 |
home, when Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer seeks legislation year after year to ban 00:17:53.680 |
semi-automatic assault weapons whose only purpose, we are told, is to kill people, while he is at 00:17:59.840 |
the same time escorted by state police armed with large-capacity 9mm semi-automatic pistols, 00:18:05.840 |
it is not simple hypocrisy. It is the workings of that habit of mind possessed by all superior 00:18:12.240 |
beings, who have taken upon themselves the terrible burden of "civilizing the masses," 00:18:18.480 |
and who understand, like our Congress, that laws are for other people. The liberal elite know that 00:18:24.720 |
they are philosopher-kings. They know that the people simply cannot be trusted, and that they 00:18:30.880 |
are incapable of just and fair self-government, that left to their own devices their society will 00:18:37.760 |
be racist, sexist, homophobic, and inequitable. And the liberal elite know how to fix things. 00:18:44.720 |
They are going to help us live the good and just life, even if they have to lie to us and 00:18:50.400 |
force us to do it. And they detest those who stand in their way. 00:18:55.040 |
The private ownership of firearms is a rebuke to this utopian zeal. To own firearms is to affirm 00:19:02.080 |
that freedom and liberty are not gifts from the state. It is to reserve final judgment about 00:19:08.640 |
whether the state is encroaching on freedom and liberty, to stand ready to defend that freedom 00:19:13.520 |
with more than mere words, and to stand outside the state's totalitarian reach. 00:19:20.160 |
The Florida Experience The elitist distrust of the people 00:19:25.280 |
underlying the gun control movement is illustrated beautifully in HCI's campaign against a new 00:19:30.880 |
concealed carry law in Florida. Prior to 1987, the Florida law permitting the issuance of concealed 00:19:36.880 |
carry permits was administered at the county level. The law was vague, and as a result was 00:19:42.080 |
subject to conflicting interpretation and political manipulation. Permits were issued 00:19:47.200 |
principally to security personnel and the "privileged few" with political connections. 00:19:52.880 |
Permits were valid only within the county of issuance. In 1987, however, Florida enacted a 00:19:59.120 |
uniform concealed carry law, which mandates that county authorities issue a permit to anyone 00:20:04.640 |
who satisfies certain objective criteria. The law requires that a permit be issued to any applicant 00:20:10.880 |
who is a resident, at least 21 years of age, has no criminal record, no record of alcohol or drug 00:20:16.960 |
abuse, no history of mental illness, and provides evidence of having satisfactorily completed a 00:20:22.160 |
firearm safety course offered by the NRA or other competent instructor. The applicant must provide 00:20:27.920 |
a set of fingerprints, after which the authorities make a background check. The permit must be issued 00:20:33.920 |
or denied within 90 days, is valid throughout the state, and must be renewed every three years, 00:20:39.280 |
which provides authorities a regular means of reevaluating whether the permit holder still 00:20:43.360 |
qualifies. Passage of this legislation was vehemently opposed by HCI and the media. The 00:20:49.680 |
law, they said, would lead to citizens shooting each other over everyday disputes involving 00:20:53.920 |
fender-benders, impolite behavior, and other slights to their dignity. Terms like "Florida, 00:20:59.360 |
the gun-shy state" and "Dodge City East" were coined to suggest that the state and those seeking 00:21:05.360 |
passage of the law were encouraging individuals to act as judge, jury, and executioner in a 00:21:11.200 |
death-wish society. No HCI campaign more clearly demonstrates the elitist beliefs underlying the 00:21:18.320 |
campaign to eradicate gun ownership. Given the qualifications required of permit holders, 00:21:23.520 |
HCI and the media can only believe that common, law-abiding citizens are seething cauldrons of 00:21:29.680 |
homicidal rage, ready to kill to avenge any slight to their dignity, eager to seek out and 00:21:36.240 |
summarily execute the lawless. Only lack of immediate access to a gun restrains them and 00:21:42.080 |
prevents the blood from flowing in the streets. They are so mentally and morally deficient that 00:21:48.560 |
they would mistake a permit to carry a weapon in self-defense as a state-sanctioned license to kill 00:21:54.160 |
at will. Did the dire predictions come true? Despite the fact that Miami and Dade County have 00:22:02.400 |
severe problems with the drug trade, the homicide rate fell in Florida following enactment of this 00:22:07.920 |
law, as it did in Oregon following enactment of similar legislation there. There are, in addition, 00:22:15.280 |
several documented cases of new permit holders successfully using their weapons to defend 00:22:20.160 |
themselves. Information from the Florida Department of State shows that, from the beginning of the 00:22:24.800 |
program in 1987 through June 1993, 160,823 permits have been issued, and only 530, or about 0.33% 00:22:35.760 |
of the applicants, have been denied a permit for failure to satisfy the criteria, indicating that 00:22:40.880 |
the law is benefiting those whom it was intended to benefit. The law abiding. Only 16 permits, 00:22:47.920 |
less than 1/100th of 1%, have been revoked due to the post-issuance commission of a crime 00:22:55.840 |
involving a firearm. The Florida legislation has been used as a model for legislation adopted by 00:23:03.920 |
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Mississippi. There are, in addition, seven other states—Maine, 00:23:09.760 |
North and South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and, with the exception of cities with 00:23:14.000 |
a population in excess of 1 million, Pennsylvania—which provide that concealed carry permits 00:23:18.720 |
must be issued to law abiding citizens who satisfy various objective criteria. 00:23:23.200 |
Finally, no permit is required at all in Vermont. Altogether, then, there are 13 states in which 00:23:29.680 |
law abiding citizens who wish to carry arms to defend themselves may do so. While no one appears 00:23:35.440 |
to have compiled the statistics from all of these jurisdictions, there is certainly an ample 00:23:40.160 |
database for those seeking the truth about the trustworthiness of law abiding citizens who carry 00:23:45.280 |
firearms. Other evidence also suggests that armed citizens are very responsible in using guns to 00:23:53.040 |
defend themselves. Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck, using surveys and other 00:23:58.320 |
data, has determined that armed citizens defend their lives or property with firearms against 00:24:02.720 |
criminals approximately 1 million times a year. In 98% of these instances, the citizen merely 00:24:08.640 |
brandishes the weapon or fires a warning shot. Only in 2% of the cases do citizens actually 00:24:13.920 |
shoot their assailants. In defending themselves with their firearms, armed citizens kill 2,000 00:24:18.800 |
to 3,000 criminals each year, three times the number killed by the police. A nationwide study 00:24:24.320 |
by Cates, the constitutional lawyer and criminologist, found that only 2% of civilian 00:24:29.760 |
shootings involved an innocent person mistakenly identified as a criminal. The error rate for the 00:24:35.440 |
police, however, was 11%, over five times as high. It is simply not possible to square the numbers 00:24:41.760 |
above and the experience of Florida with the notions that honest, law abiding gun owners are 00:24:46.720 |
borderline psychopaths itching for an excuse to shoot someone, vigilantes eager to seek out and 00:24:52.640 |
summarily execute the lawless, or incompetent fools incapable of determining when it is proper to use 00:24:59.600 |
lethal force in defense of their lives. Nor, upon reflection, should these results seem surprising. 00:25:05.280 |
Rape, robbery, and attempted murder are not typically actions rife with ambiguity or subtlety, 00:25:12.640 |
requiring special powers of observation and great book learning to discern. When a man pulls a knife 00:25:18.560 |
on a woman and says, "You're coming with me," her judgment that a crime is being committed is not 00:25:23.440 |
likely to be in error. There is little chance that she is going to shoot the wrong person. 00:25:28.240 |
It is the police, because they are rarely at the scene of the crime when it occurs, who are more 00:25:34.000 |
likely to find themselves in circumstances where guilt and innocence are not so clear cut, 00:25:39.040 |
and in which the probability for mistakes is higher. 00:25:43.680 |
Classical Republican philosophy has long recognized the critical relationship between 00:25:49.440 |
personal liberty and the possession of arms by a people ready and willing to use them. 00:25:54.240 |
Political theorists as dissimilar as Niccolo Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, James Harrington, 00:26:01.600 |
Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all share the view that the possession 00:26:07.520 |
of arms is vital for resisting tyranny, and that to be disarmed by one's government is tantamount 00:26:13.600 |
to being enslaved by it. The possession of arms by the people is the ultimate warrant 00:26:19.360 |
that government governs only with the consent of the governed. As Cates has shown, the Second 00:26:26.000 |
Amendment is as much a product of this political philosophy as it is of the American experience in 00:26:31.120 |
the Revolutionary War. Yet our conservative elite has abandoned this aspect of Republican theory. 00:26:37.440 |
Although our conservative pundits recognize and embrace gun owners as allies in other arenas, 00:26:43.760 |
their battle for gun rights is desultory. The problem here is not a statist utopianism, 00:26:49.760 |
although goodness knows that liberals are not alone in the confidence they have in the state's 00:26:53.920 |
ability to solve society's problems. Rather, the problem seems to lie in certain cultural traits 00:26:59.840 |
shared by our conservative and liberal elites. One such trait is an abounding faith in the power 00:27:05.680 |
of the word. The failure of our conservative elite to defend the Second Amendment stems, 00:27:10.320 |
in great measure, from an overestimation of the power of the rights set forth in the First 00:27:14.800 |
Amendment and a general undervaluation of action. Implicit in calls for the repeal of the Second 00:27:20.960 |
Amendment is the assumption that our First Amendment rights are sufficient to preserve 00:27:24.560 |
our liberty. The belief is that liberty can be preserved as long as men freely speak their minds, 00:27:30.640 |
that there is no tyranny or abuse that can survive being exposed in the press, 00:27:35.520 |
and that the truth need only be disclosed for the culprits to be shamed. The people will act, 00:27:40.480 |
and the truth shall set us free. History is not kind to this belief, 00:27:48.000 |
tending rather to support the view of Hobbes, Machiavelli, and other Republican theorists that 00:27:53.280 |
only people willing and able to defend themselves can preserve their liberties. While it may be 00:27:58.720 |
tempting and comforting to believe that the existence of mass electronic communication has 00:28:04.160 |
forever altered the balance of power between the state and its subjects, the belief has certainly 00:28:09.520 |
not been tested by time, and what little history there is in the age of mass communication is not 00:28:15.280 |
especially encouraging. The camera, radio, and press are mere tools, and like guns can be used 00:28:21.280 |
for good or ill. Hitler, after all, was a masterful orator, used radio to very good effect, and is 00:28:28.640 |
well known to have pioneered and exploited the propaganda opportunities afforded by film. And 00:28:34.080 |
then, of course, there were the brownshirts, who knew very well how to quell dissent among 00:28:38.720 |
intellectuals. Polite Society In addition to being enamored of the power of words, 00:28:45.840 |
our conservative elite shares with liberals the notion that an armed society is just not 00:28:50.320 |
civilized or progressive, that massive gun ownership is a blot on our civilization. 00:28:55.520 |
This association of personal disarmament with civilized behavior is one of the great 00:29:01.120 |
unexamined beliefs of our time. Should you read English literature from the 16th through 19th 00:29:06.720 |
centuries, you will discover numerous references to the fact that a gentleman, especially when out 00:29:11.920 |
at night or traveling, armed himself with a sword or a pistol against the chance of encountering a 00:29:16.800 |
highwayman or other such predator. This does not appear to have shocked the ladies accompanying him. 00:29:22.320 |
True, for the most part, there were no police in those days, but we have already addressed 00:29:26.640 |
the notion that the presence of the police absolves people of the responsibility to look 00:29:30.800 |
after their safety, and in any event, the existence of the police cannot be said to 00:29:34.720 |
have reduced crime to negligible levels. It is by no means obvious why it is "civilized" to permit 00:29:41.840 |
oneself to fall easy prey to criminal violence and to permit criminals to continue unobstructed 00:29:47.840 |
in their evil ways. While it may be that a society in which crime is so rare that no one ever needs 00:29:53.680 |
to carry a weapon is "civilized," a society that stigmatizes the carrying of weapons by the law 00:29:59.920 |
abiding because it distrusts its citizens more than it fears rapists, robbers, and murderers 00:30:06.960 |
certainly cannot claim this distinction. Perhaps the notion that defending oneself with lethal 00:30:13.120 |
force is not "civilized" arises from the view that violence is always wrong, or the view that 00:30:18.880 |
each human being is of such intrinsic worth that it is wrong to kill anyone under any circumstances. 00:30:24.080 |
The necessary implication of these propositions, however, is that life is not worth defending. 00:30:29.840 |
Far from being "civilized," the beliefs that counter-violence and killing are always wrong 00:30:36.000 |
are an invitation to the spread of barbarism. Such beliefs announce loudly and clearly that 00:30:42.240 |
those who do not respect the lives and properties of others will rule over those who do. In truth, 00:30:49.120 |
one who believes it wrong to arm himself against criminal violence shows contempt of God's gift 00:30:54.560 |
of life, or in modern parlance, does not properly value himself, does not live up to his responsibilities 00:31:00.800 |
to his family and community, and proclaims himself mentally and morally deficient because he does 00:31:07.120 |
not trust himself to behave responsibly. In truth, a state that deprives its law-abiding citizens of 00:31:13.200 |
the means to effectively defend themselves is not "civilized" but barbarous, becoming an 00:31:19.200 |
accomplice of murderers, rapists, and thugs, and revealing its totalitarian nature by its tacit 00:31:25.200 |
admission that the disorganized, random havoc created by criminals is far less a threat than 00:31:31.120 |
our men and women who believe themselves free and independent and act accordingly. 00:31:35.120 |
While gun control proponents and other advocates of a "kinder, gentler" society incessantly decry 00:31:41.920 |
our "armed" society, in truth we do not live in an armed society. We live in a society in which 00:31:48.080 |
violent criminals and agents of the state habitually carry weapons, and in which many 00:31:53.440 |
law-abiding citizens own firearms but do not go about armed. Department of Justice statistics 00:31:59.920 |
indicate that 87% of all violent crimes occur outside the home. Essentially, although tens 00:32:06.000 |
of millions own firearms, we are an unarmed society. Take back the night. Clearly, the police 00:32:14.080 |
and the courts are not providing a significant break on criminal activity. While liberals call 00:32:19.120 |
for more poverty, education, and drug treatment programs, conservatives take a more direct tack. 00:32:24.800 |
George Will advocates a massive increase in the number of police and a shift toward 00:32:29.680 |
community-based policing. Meanwhile, the NRA and many conservative leaders call for laws that would 00:32:34.800 |
require violent criminals serve at least 85% of their sentences and would place repeat offenders 00:32:40.000 |
permanently behind bars. Our society suffers greatly from the beliefs that only official 00:32:46.160 |
action is legitimate and that the state is the source of our earthly salvation. 00:32:51.040 |
Both liberal and conservative prescriptions for violent crime suffer from the "not in my job" 00:32:57.360 |
description school of thought regarding the responsibilities of the law-abiding citizen, 00:33:02.000 |
and from an overestimation of the ability of the state to provide society's moral moorings. 00:33:06.400 |
As long as law-abiding citizens assume no personal responsibility for combating crime, 00:33:12.560 |
liberal and conservative programs will fail to contain it. Judging by the numerous articles 00:33:18.880 |
about concealed carry in gun magazines, the growing number of products advertised for such purpose, 00:33:23.920 |
and the increase in the number of concealed carry applications in states with mandatory 00:33:27.920 |
issuance laws, more and more people, including growing numbers of women, are carrying firearms 00:33:33.600 |
for self-defense. Since there are still many states in which the issuance of permits is 00:33:38.800 |
discretionary, and in which law enforcement officials routinely deny applications, 00:33:43.520 |
many people have been put to the hard choice between protecting their lives or respecting 00:33:48.240 |
the law. Some of these people have learned the hard way, by being the victim of a crime, 00:33:53.040 |
or by seeing a friend or loved one raped, robbed, or murdered, that violent crime can happen to 00:33:58.560 |
anyone, anywhere, at any time, and that crime is not about sex or property, but life, liberty, 00:34:05.600 |
and dignity. The laws proscribing concealed carry of firearms by honest, law-abiding citizens breed 00:34:13.280 |
nothing but disrespect for the law. As the Founding Fathers knew well, a government that does 00:34:18.320 |
not trust its honest, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens with the means of self-defense is not 00:34:24.240 |
itself worthy of trust. Laws disarming honest citizens proclaim that the government is the 00:34:31.200 |
master, not the servant, of the people. A federal law along the lines of the Florida Statute, 00:34:38.400 |
overriding all contradictory state and local laws and acknowledging that the carrying of 00:34:43.520 |
firearms by law-abiding citizens is a privilege and immunity of citizenship, is needed to correct 00:34:49.920 |
the outrageous conduct of state and local officials operating under discretionary licensing 00:34:54.880 |
systems. What we certainly do not need is more gun control. Those who call for the repeal of 00:35:01.040 |
the Second Amendment so that we can really begin controlling firearms betray a serious 00:35:05.680 |
misunderstanding of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights does not grant rights to the people, 00:35:11.040 |
such that its repeal would legitimately confer upon the government the powers otherwise proscribed. 00:35:16.880 |
The Bill of Rights is the list of the fundamental, inalienable rights, endowed in man by his Creator, 00:35:24.720 |
that define what it means to be a free and independent people, the rights which must exist 00:35:30.480 |
to ensure that government governs only with the consent of the people. At one time, this was even 00:35:37.280 |
understood by the Supreme Court. In United States v. Cruikshank, 1876, the first case in which the 00:35:43.600 |
Court had an opportunity to interpret the Second Amendment, it stated that the right confirmed by 00:35:49.120 |
the Second Amendment "is not a right granted by the Constitution, neither is it in any manner 00:35:56.080 |
dependent upon that instrument for its existence." The repeal of the Second Amendment would no more 00:36:03.680 |
render the outlawing of firearms legitimate than the repeal of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth 00:36:09.120 |
Amendment would authorize the government to imprison and kill people at will. A government 00:36:14.720 |
that abrogates any of the Bill of Rights, with or without majoritarian approval, forever acts 00:36:21.920 |
illegitimately, becomes tyrannical, and loses the moral right to govern. This is the uncompromising 00:36:31.520 |
understanding reflected in the warning that America's gun owners will not go gently into 00:36:36.240 |
that good utopian night. "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands." 00:36:42.720 |
While liberals take this statement as evidence of the retrograde, violent nature of gun owners, 00:36:50.160 |
we gun owners hope that liberals hold equally strong sentiments about their printing presses, 00:36:55.680 |
word processors, and television cameras. The Republic depends upon fervent devotion 00:37:03.200 |
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