Are we a nation of cowards??

A NATION OF COWARDS
Jeffrey R. Snyder
OUR SOCIETY has reached a pinnacle of self-expression and respect for individuality rare or
unmatched in history. Our entire popular culture -- from fashion magazines to the cinema -- positively
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (1 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
screams the matchless worth of the individual, and glories in eccentricity, nonconformity, independent
judgment, and self-determination. This enthusiasm is reflected in the prevalent notion that helping
someone entails increasing that person's "self-esteem"; that if a person properly values himself, he will
naturally be a happy, productive, and, in some inexplicable fashion, responsible member of society.
And yet, while people are encouraged to revel in their individuality and incalculable self-worth, the
media and the law enforcement establishment continually advise us that, when confronted with the threat
of lethal violence, we should not resist, but simply give the attacker what he wants. If the crime under
consideration is rape, there is some notable waffling on this point, and the discussion quickly moves to
how the woman can change her behavior to minimize the risk of rape, and the various ridiculous, nonlethal
weapons she may acceptably carry, such as whistles, keys, mace or, that weapon which really
sends shivers down a rapist's spine, the portable cellular phone.
Now how can this be? How can a person who values himself so highly calmly accept the indignity of a
criminal assault? How can one who believes that the essence of his dignity lies in his self-determination
passively accept the forcible deprivation of that self-determination? How can he, quietly, with great
dignity and poise, simply hand over the goods?
The assumption, of course, is that there is no inconsistency. The advice not to resist a criminal assault
and simply hand over the goods is founded on the notion that one's life is of incalculable value, and that
no amount of property is worth it. Put aside, for a moment, the outrageousness of the suggestion that a
criminal who proffers lethal violence should be treated as if he has instituted a new social contract: "I
will not hurt or kill you if you give me what I want." For years, feminists have labored to educate people
that rape is not about sex, but about domination, degradation, and control. Evidently, someone needs to
inform the law enforcement establishment and the media that kidnapping, robbery, carjacking, and
assault are not about property.
Crime is not only a complete disavowal of the social contract, but also a commandeering of the victim's
person and liberty. If the individual's dignity lies in the fact that he is a moral agent engaging in actions
of his own will, in free exchange with others, then crime always violates the victim's dignity. It is, in
fact, an act of enslavement. Your wallet, your purse, or your car may not be worth your life, but your
dignity is; and if it is not worth fighting for, it can hardly be said to exist.
The Gift of Life
Although difficult for modern man to fathom, it was once widely believed that life was a gift from God,
that to not defend that life when offered violence was to hold God's gift in contempt, to be a coward and
to breach one's duty to one's community. A sermon given in Philadelphia in 1747 unequivocally equated
the failure to defend oneself with suicide:
He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one that hath no authority for that purpose,
when he might preserve it by defense, incurs the Guilt of self murder since God hath
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (2 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
enjoined him to seek the continuance of his life, and Nature itself teaches every creature to
defend itself.
"Cowardice" and "self-respect" have largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are
offered "self-esteem" as the bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. "Self-respect" implies that
one recognizes standards, and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. "Selfesteem"
simply means that one feels good about oneself. "Dignity" used to refer to the self-mastery and
fortitude with which a person conducted himself in the face of life's vicissitudes and the boorish
behavior of others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a
discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption that
we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. These are
signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality of our character, the hollowness of our souls.
It is impossible to address the problem of rampant crime without talking about the moral responsibility
of the intended victim. Crime is rampant because the law-abiding, each of us, condone it, excuse it,
permit it, submit to it. We permit and encourage it because we do not fight back, immediately, then and
there, where it happens. Crime is not rampant because we do not have enough prisons, because judges
and prosecutors are too soft, because the police are hamstrung with absurd technicalities. The defect is
there, in our character. We are a nation of cowards and shirkers.
Do You Feel Lucky?
In 1991, when then-Attorney General Richard Thornburgh released the FBI's annual crime statistics, he
noted that it is now more likely that a person will be the victim of a violent crime than that he will be in
an auto accident. Despite this, most people readily believe that the existence of the police relieves them
of the responsibility to take full measures to protect themselves. The police, however, are not personal
bodyguards. Rather, they act as a general deterrent to crime, both by their presence and by apprehending
criminals after the fact. As numerous courts have held, they have no legal obligation to protect anyone in
particular. You cannot sue them for failing to prevent you from being the victim of a crime.
Insofar as the police deter by their presence, they are very, very good. Criminals take great pains not to
commit a crime in front of them. Unfortunately, the corollary is that you can pretty much bet your life
(and you are) that they won't be there at the moment you actually need them.
Should you ever be the victim of an assault, a robbery, or a rape, you will find it very difficult to call the
police while the act is in progress, even if you are carrying a portable cellular phone. Nevertheless, you
might be interested to know how long it takes them to show up. Department of Justice statistics for 1991
show that, for all crimes of violence, only 28 percent of calls are responded to within five minutes. The
idea that protection is a service people can call to have delivered and expect to receive in a timely
fashion is often mocked by gun owners, who love to recite the challenge, "Call for a cop, call for an
ambulance, and call for a pizza. See who shows up first."
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (3 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
Many people deal with the problem of crime by convincing themselves that they live, work, and travel
only in special "crime-free" zones. Invariably, they react with shock and hurt surprise when they
discover that criminals do not play by the rules and do not respect these imaginary boundaries. If,
however, you understand that crime can occur anywhere at anytime, and if you understand that you can
be maimed or mortally wounded in mere seconds, you may wish to consider whether you are willing to
place the responsibility for safeguarding your life in the hands of others.
Power And Responsibility
Is your life worth protecting? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it? If you believe that it is the
police's, not only are you wrong -- since the courts universally rule that they have no legal obligation to
do so -- but you face some difficult moral quandaries. How can you rightfully ask another human being
to risk his life to protect yours, when you will assume no responsibility yourself? Because that is his job
and we pay him to do it? Because your life is of incalculable value, but his is only worth the $30,000
salary we pay him? If you believe it reprehensible to possess the means and will to use lethal force to
repel a criminal assault, how can you call upon another to do so for you?
Do you believe that you are forbidden to protect yourself because the police are better qualified to
protect you, because they know what they are doing but you're a rank amateur? Put aside that this is
equivalent to believing that only concert pianists may play the piano and only professional athletes may
play sports. What exactly are these special qualities possessed only by the police and beyond the rest of
us mere mortals?
One who values his life and takes seriously his responsibilities to his family and community will possess
and cultivate the means of fighting back, and will retaliate when threatened with death or grievous injury
to himself or a loved one. He will never be content to rely solely on others for his safety, or to think he
has done all that is possible by being aware of his surroundings and taking measures of avoidance. Let's
not mince words: He will be armed, will be trained in the use of his weapon, and will defend himself
when faced with lethal violence.
Fortunately, there is a weapon for preserving life and liberty that can be wielded effectively by almost
anyone -- the handgun. Small and light enough to be carried habitually, lethal, but unlike the knife or
sword, not demanding great skill or strength, it truly is the "great equalizer." Requiring only hand-eye
coordination and a modicum of ability to remain cool under pressure, it can be used effectively by the
old and the weak against the young and the strong, by the one against the many.
The handgun is the only weapon that would give a lone female jogger a chance of prevailing against a
gang of thugs intent on rape, a teacher a chance of protecting children at recess from a madman intent on
massacring them, a family of tourists waiting at a mid-town subway station the means to protect
themselves from a gang of teens armed with razors and knives.
But since we live in a society that by and large outlaws the carrying of arms, we are brought into the fray
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (4 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
of the Great American Gun War. Gun control is one of the most prominent battlegrounds in our current
culture wars. Yet it is unique in the half-heartedness with which our conservative leaders and pundits --
our "conservative elite" -- do battle, and have conceded the moral high ground to liberal gun control
proponents. It is not a topic often written about, or written about with any great fervor, by William F.
Buckley or Patrick Buchanan. As drug czar, William Bennett advised President Bush to ban "assault
weapons." George Will is on record as recommending the repeal of the Second Amendment, and Jack
Kemp is on record as favoring a ban on the possession of semiautomatic "assault weapons." The battle
for gun rights is one fought predominantly by the common man. The beliefs of both our liberal and
conservative elites are in fact abetting the criminal rampage through our society.
Selling Crime Prevention
By any rational measure, nearly all gun control proposals are hokum. The Brady Bill, for example,
would not have prevented John Hinckley from obtaining a gun to shoot President Reagan; Hinckley
purchased his weapon five months before the attack, and his medical records could not have served as a
basis to deny his purchase of a gun, since medical records are not public documents filed with the police.
Similarly, California's waiting period and background check did not stop Patrick Purdy from purchasing
the "assault rifle" and handguns he used to massacre children during recess in a Stockton schoolyard; the
felony conviction that would have provided the basis for stopping the sales did not exist, because Mr.
Purdy's previous weapons violations were plea-bargained down from felonies to misdemeanors.
In the mid-sixties there was a public service advertising campaign targeted at car owners about the
prevention of car theft. The purpose of the ad was to urge car owners not to leave their keys in their cars.
The message was, "Don't help a good boy go bad." The implication was that, by leaving his keys in his
car, the normal, law-abiding car owner was contributing to the delinquency of minors who, if they just
weren't tempted beyond their limits, would be "good." Now, in those days people still had a fair sense of
just who was responsible for whose behavior. The ad succeeded in enraging a goodly portion of the
populace, and was soon dropped.
Nearly all of the gun control measures offered by Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI) and its ilk embody the
same philosophy. They are founded on the belief that America's law-abiding gun owners are the source
of the problem. With their unholy desire for firearms, they are creating a society awash in a sea of guns,
thereby helping good boys go bad, and helping bad boys be badder. This laying of moral blame for
violent crime at the feet of the law-abiding, and the implicit absolution of violent criminals for their
misdeeds, naturally infuriates honest gun owners.
The files of HCI and other gun control organizations are filled with proposals to limit the availability of
semiautomatic and other firearms to law-abiding citizens, and barren of proposals for apprehending and
punishing violent criminals. It is ludicrous to expect that the proposals of HCI, or any gun control laws,
will significantly curb crime. According to Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (ATF) statistics, fully 90 percent of violent crimes are committed without a handgun, and 93
percent of the guns obtained by violent criminals are not obtained through the lawful purchase and sale
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (5 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
transactions that are the object of most gun control legislation. Furthermore, the number of violent
criminals is minute in comparison to the number of firearms in America -- estimated by the ATF at
about 200 million, approximately one-third of which are handguns. With so abundant a supply, there
will always be enough guns available for those who wish to use them for nefarious ends, no matter how
complete the legal prohibitions against them, or how draconian the punishment for their acquisition or
use. No, the gun control proposals of HCI and other organizations are not seriously intended as crime
control. Something else is at work here.
The Tyranny of the Elite
Gun control is a moral crusade against a benighted, barbaric citizenry. This is demonstrated not only by
the ineffectualness of gun control in preventing crime, and by the fact that it focuses on restricting the
behavior of the law-abiding rather than apprehending and punishing the guilty, but also by the
execration that gun control proponents heap on gun owners and their evil instrumentality, the NRA. Gun
owners are routinely portrayed as uneducated, paranoid rednecks fascinated by and prone to violence, i.
e., exactly the type of person who opposes the liberal agenda and whose moral and social "re-education"
is the object of liberal social policies. Typical of such bigotry is New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's famous
characterization of gun-owners as "hunters who drink beer, don't vote, and lie to their wives about where
they were all weekend." Similar vituperation is rained upon the NRA, characterized by Sen. Edward
Kennedy as the "pusher's best friend," lampooned in political cartoons as standing for the right of
children to carry firearms to school and, in general, portrayed as standing for an individual's God-given
right to blow people away at will.
The stereotype is, of course, false. As criminologist and constitutional lawyer Don B. Kates, Jr. and
former HCI contributor Dr. Patricia Harris have pointed out, "[s]tudies consistently show that, on the
average, gun owners are better educated and have more prestigious jobs than non-owners.... Later
studies show that gun owners are less likely than non-owners to approve of police brutality, violence
against dissenters, etc."
Conservatives must understand that the antipathy many liberals have for gun owners arises in good
measure from their statist utopianism. This habit of mind has nowhere been better explored than in The
Republic. There, Plato argues that the perfectly just society is one in which an unarmed people exhibit
virtue by minding their own business in the performance of their assigned functions, while the
government of philosopher-kings, above the law and protected by armed guardians unquestioning in
their loyalty to the state, engineers, implements, and fine-tunes the creation of that society, aided and
abetted by myths that both hide and justify their totalitarian manipulation.
The Unarmed Life
When columnist Carl Rowan preaches gun control and uses a gun to defend his home, when Maryland
Gov. William Donald Schaefer seeks legislation year after year to ban semiautomatic "assault weapons"
whose only purpose, we are told, is to kill people, while he is at the same time escorted by state police
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (6 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
armed with large-capacity 9mm semiautomatic pistols, it is not simple hypocrisy. It is the workings of
that habit of mind possessed by all superior beings who have taken upon themselves the terrible burden
of civilizing the masses and who understand, like our Congress, that laws are for other people.
The liberal elite know that they are philosopher-kings. They know that the people simply cannot be
trusted; that they are incapable of just and fair self-government; that left to their own devices, their
society will be racist, sexist, homophobic, and inequitable -- and the liberal elite know how to fix things.
They are going to help us live the good and just life, even if they have to lie to us and force us to do it.
And they detest those who stand in their way.
The private ownership of firearms is a rebuke to this utopian zeal. To own firearms is to affirm that
freedom and liberty are not gifts from the state. It is to reserve final judgment about whether the state is
encroaching on freedom and liberty, to stand ready to defend that freedom with more than mere words,
and to stand outside the state's totalitarian reach.
The Florida Experience
The elitist distrust of the people underlying the gun control movement is illustrated beautifully in HCI's
campaign against a new concealed-carry law in Florida. Prior to 1987, the Florida law permitting the
issuance of concealed-carry permits was administered at the county level. The law was vague, and, as a
result, was subject to conflicting interpretation and political manipulation. Permits were issued
principally to security personnel and the privileged few with political connections. Permits were valid
only within the county of issuance.
In 1987, however, Florida enacted a uniform concealed-carry law which mandates that county
authorities issue a permit to anyone who satisfies certain objective criteria. The law requires that a
permit be issued to any applicant who is a resident, at least twenty-one years of age, has no criminal
record, no record of alcohol or drug abuse, no history of mental illness, and provides evidence of having
satisfactorily completed a firearms safety course offered by the NRA or other competent instructor. The
applicant must provide a set of fingerprints, after which the authorities make a background check. The
permit must be issued or denied within ninety days, is valid throughout the state, and must be renewed
every three years, which provides authorities a regular means of reevaluating whether the permit holder
still qualifies.
Passage of this legislation was vehemently opposed by HCI and the media. The law, they said, would
lead to citizens shooting each other over everyday disputes involving fender benders, impolite behavior,
and other slights to their dignity. Terms like "Florida, the Gunshine State" and "Dodge City East" were
coined to suggest that the state, and those seeking passage of the law, were encouraging individuals to
act as judge, jury, and executioner in a "Death Wish" society.
No HCI campaign more clearly demonstrates the elitist beliefs underlying the campaign to eradicate gun
ownership. Given the qualifications required of permit holders, HCI and the media can only believe that
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (7 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
common, law-abiding citizens are seething cauldrons of homicidal rage, ready to kill to avenge any
slight to their dignity, eager to seek out and summarily execute the lawless. Only lack of immediate
access to a gun restrains them and prevents the blood from flowing in the streets. They are so mentally
and morally deficient that they would mistake a permit to carry a weapon in self-defense as a statesanctioned
license to kill at will.
Did the dire predictions come true? Despite the fact that Miami and Dade County have severe problems
with the drug trade, the homicide rate fell in Florida following enactment of this law, as it did in Oregon
following enactment of similar legislation there. There are, in addition, several documented cases of new
permit holders successfully using their weapons to defend themselves. Information from the Florida
Department of State shows that, from the beginning of the program in 1987 through June 1993, 160,823
permits have been issued, and only 530, or about 0.33 percent of the applicants, have been denied a
permit for failure to satisfy the criteria, indicating that the law is benefitting those whom it was intended
to benefit -- the law-abiding. Only 16 permits, less than 1/100th of 1 percent, have been revoked due to
the post-issuance commission of a crime involving a firearm.
The Florida legislation has been used as a model for legislation adopted by Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and
Mississippi. There are, in addition, seven other states (Maine, North and South Dakota, Utah,
Washington, West Virginia, and, with the exception of cities with a population in excess of 1 million,
Pennsylvania) which provide that concealed-carry permits must be issued to law-abiding citizens who
satisfy various objective criteria. Finally, no permit is required at all in Vermont. Altogether, then, there
are thirteen states in which law-abiding citizens who wish to carry arms to defend themselves may do so.
While no one appears to have compiled the statistics from all of these jurisdictions, there is certainly an
ample data base for those seeking the truth about the trustworthiness of law-abiding citizens who carry
firearms.
Other evidence also suggests that armed citizens are very responsible in using guns to defend
themselves. Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck, using surveys and other data, has
determined that armed citizens defend their lives or property with firearms against criminals
approximately 1 million times a year. In 98 percent of these instances, the citizen merely brandishes the
weapon or fires a warning shot. Only in 2 percent of the cases do citizens actually shoot their assailants.
In defending themselves with their firearms, armed citizens kill 2,000 to 3,000 criminals each year, three
times the number killed by the police. A nationwide study by Kates, the constitutional lawyer and
criminologist, found that only 2 percent of civilian shootings involved an innocent person mistakenly
identified as a criminal. The "error rate" for the police, however, was 11 percent, over five times as high.
It is simply not possible to square the numbers above and the experience of Florida with the notions that
honest, law-abiding gun owners are borderline psychopaths itching for an excuse to shoot someone,
vigilantes eager to seek out and summarily execute the lawless, or incompetent fools incapable of
determining when it is proper to use lethal force in defense of their lives. Nor upon reflection should
these results seem surprising. Rape, robbery, and attempted murder are not typically actions rife with
ambiguity or subtlety, requiring special powers of observation and great book-learning to discern. When
a man pulls a knife on a woman and says, "You're coming with me," her judgment that a crime is being
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (8 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
committed is not likely to be in error. There is little chance that she is going to shoot the wrong person.
It is the police, because they are rarely at the scene of the crime when it occurs, who are more likely to
find themselves in circumstances where guilt and innocence are not so clear-cut, and in which the
probability for mistakes is higher.
Arms and Liberty
Classical republican philosophy has long recognized the critical relationship between personal liberty
and the possession of arms by a people ready and willing to use them. Political theorists as dissimilar as
Niccolo Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, James Harrington, Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and Jean-
Jacques Rousseau all shared the view that the possession of arms is vital for resisting tyranny, and that to
be disarmed by one's government is tantamount to being enslaved by it. The possession of arms by the
people is the ultimate warrant that government governs only with the consent of the governed. As Kates
has shown, the Second Amendment is as much a product of this political philosophy as it is of the
American experience in the Revolutionary War. Yet our conservative elite has abandoned this aspect of
republican theory. Although our conservative pundits recognize and embrace gun owners as allies in
other arenas, their battle for gun rights is desultory. The problem here is not a statist utopianism,
although goodness knows that liberals are not alone in the confidence they have in the state's ability to
solve society's problems. Rather, the problem seems to lie in certain cultural traits shared by our
conservative and liberal elites.
One such trait is an abounding faith in the power of the word. The failure of our conservative elite to
defend the Second Amendment stems in great measure from an overestimation of the power of the rights
set forth in the First Amendment, and a general undervaluation of action. Implicit in calls for the repeal
of the Second Amendment is the assumption that our First Amendment rights are sufficient to preserve
our liberty. The belief is that liberty can be preserved as long as men freely speak their minds; that there
is no tyranny or abuse that can survive being exposed in the press; and that the truth need only be
disclosed for the culprits to be shamed. The people will act, and the truth shall set us, and keep us, free.
History is not kind to this belief, tending rather to support the view of Hobbes, Machiavelli, and other
republican theorists that only people willing and able to defend themselves can preserve their liberties.
While it may be tempting and comforting to believe that the existence of mass electronic communication
has forever altered the balance of power between the state and its subjects, the belief has certainly not
been tested by time, and what little history there is in the age of mass communication is not especially
encouraging. The camera, radio, and press are mere tools and, like guns, can be used for good or ill.
Hitler, after all, was a masterful orator, used radio to very good effect, and is well known to have
pioneered and exploited the propaganda opportunities afforded by film. And then, of course, there were
the Brownshirts, who knew very well how to quell dissent among intellectuals.
Polite Society
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (9 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
In addition to being enamored of the power of words, our conservative elite shares with liberals the
notion that an armed society is just not civilized or progressive, that massive gun ownership is a blot on
our civilization. This association of personal disarmament with civilized behavior is one of the great
unexamined beliefs of our time.
Should you read English literature from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, you will discover
numerous references to the fact that a gentleman, especially when out at night or traveling, armed
himself with a sword or a pistol against the chance of encountering a highwayman or other such
predator. This does not appear to have shocked the ladies accompanying him. True, for the most part
there were no police in those days, but we have already addressed the notion that the presence of the
police absolves people of the responsibility to look after their safety, and in any event the existence of
the police cannot be said to have reduced crime to negligible levels.
It is by no means obvious why it is "civilized" to permit oneself to fall easy prey to criminal violence,
and to permit criminals to continue unobstructed in their evil ways. While it may be that a society in
which crime is so rare that no one ever needs to carry a weapon is "civilized," a society that stigmatizes
the carrying of weapons by the law-abiding -- because it distrusts its citizens more than it fears rapists,
robbers, and murderers -- certainly cannot claim this distinction. Perhaps the notion that defending
oneself with lethal force is not "civilized" arises from the view that violence is always wrong, or the
view that each human being is of such intrinsic worth that it is wrong to kill anyone under any
circumstances. The necessary implication of these propositions, however, is that life is not worth
defending. Far from being "civilized," the beliefs that counterviolence and killing are always wrong are
an invitation to the spread of barbarism. Such beliefs announce loudly and clearly that those who do not
respect the lives and property of others will rule over those who do.
In truth, one who believes it wrong to arm himself against criminal violence shows contempt of God's
gift of life (or, in modern parlance, does not properly value himself), does not live up to his
responsibilities to his family and community, and proclaims himself mentally and morally deficient,
because he does not trust himself to behave responsibly. In truth, a state that deprives its law-abiding
citizens of the means to effectively defend themselves is not civilized but barbarous, becoming an
accomplice of murderers, rapists, and thugs and revealing its totalitarian nature by its tacit admission
that the disorganized, random havoc created by criminals is far less a threat than are men and women
who believe themselves free and independent, and act accordingly.
While gun control proponents and other advocates of a kinder, gentler society incessantly decry our
"armed society," in truth we do not live in an armed society. We live in a society in which violent
criminals and agents of the state habitually carry weapons, and in which many law-abiding citizens own
firearms but do not go about armed. Department of Justice statistics indicate that 87 percent of all
violent crimes occur outside the home. Essentially, although tens of millions own firearms, we are an
unarmed society.
Take Back the Night
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (10 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
Clearly the police and the courts are not providing a significant brake on criminal activity. While liberals
call for more poverty, education, and drug treatment programs, conservatives take a more direct tack.
George Will advocates a massive increase in the number of police and a shift toward "community-based
policing." Meanwhile, the NRA and many conservative leaders call for laws that would require violent
criminals serve at least 85 percent of their sentences and would place repeat offenders permanently
behind bars.
Our society suffers greatly from the beliefs that only official action is legitimate and that the state is the
source of our earthly salvation. Both liberal and conservative prescriptions for violent crime suffer from
the "not in my job description" school of thought regarding the responsibilities of the law-abiding
citizen, and from an overestimation of the ability of the state to provide society's moral moorings. As
long as law-abiding citizens assume no personal responsibility for combatting crime, liberal and
conservative programs will fail to contain it.
Judging by the numerous articles about concealed-carry in gun magazines, the growing number of
products advertised for such purpose, and the increase in the number of concealed-carry applications in
states with mandatory-issuance laws, more and more people, including growing numbers of women, are
carrying firearms for self-defense. Since there are still many states in which the issuance of permits is
discretionary and in which law enforcement officials routinely deny applications, many people have
been put to the hard choice between protecting their lives or respecting the law. Some of these people
have learned the hard way, by being the victim of a crime, or by seeing a friend or loved one raped,
robbed, or murdered, that violent crime can happen to anyone, anywhere at anytime, and that crime is
not about sex or property but life, liberty, and dignity.
The laws proscribing concealed-carry of firearms by honest, law-abiding citizens breed nothing but
disrespect for the law. As the Founding Fathers knew well, a government that does not trust its honest,
law-abiding, taxpaying citizens with the means of self-defense is not itself worthy of trust. Laws
disarming honest citizens proclaim that the government is the master, not the servant, of the people. A
federal law along the lines of the Florida statute -- overriding all contradictory state and local laws and
acknowledging that the carrying of firearms by law-abiding citizens is a privilege and immunity of
citizenship -- is needed to correct the outrageous conduct of state and local officials operating under
discretionary licensing systems.
What we certainly do not need is more gun control. Those who call for the repeal of the Second
Amendment so that we can really begin controlling firearms betray a serious misunderstanding of the
Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights does not grant rights to the people, such that its repeal would
legitimately confer upon government the powers otherwise proscribed. The Bill of Rights is the list of
the fundamental, inalienable rights, endowed in man by his Creator, that define what it means to be a
free and independent people, the rights which must exist to ensure that government governs only with
the consent of the people.
At one time this was even understood by the Supreme Court. In United States v. Cruikshank (1876), the
http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/cowards.html (11 of 12)1/6/2006 11:00:24 AM
A Nation of Cowards
first case in which the Court had an opportunity to interpret the Second Amendment, it stated that the
right confirmed by the Second Amendment "is not a right granted by the constitution. Neither is it in any
manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence." The repeal of the Second Amendment would
no more render the outlawing of firearms legitimate than the repeal of the due process clause of the Fifth
Amendment would authorize the government to imprison and kill people at will. A government that
abrogates any of the Bill of Rights, with or without majoritarian approval, forever acts illegitimately,
becomes tyrannical, and loses the moral right to govern.
This is the uncompromising understanding reflected in the warning that America's gun owners will not
go gently into that good, utopian night: "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead
hands." While liberals take this statement as evidence of the retrograde, violent nature of gun owners,
we gun owners hope that liberals hold equally strong sentiments about their printing presses, word
processors, and television cameras. The republic depends upon fervent devotion to all our fundamental
rights.
Reformatted by:
Eric S. Raymond