As a student of history, I love looking at trends throughout the world in different cultures, different countries, different governmental philosophies, and so on and so forth. I enjoy learning the lessons from history and applying them to my life.
The Miss America Pageant has taught us two things- one, everyone wants world peace, and two, it ain't happenin'.
Why?
History has shown us that peace will only happen one of two ways. In order to live in peace, one of two things absolutely has to happen.
One, we will have to trust in the inherent goodness of people. We have to turn from being selfish, self-centered, immoral people to being decent, law-abiding, wonderful people. All criminals will have to stop being criminals, all nations will have to stop going to war, all terrorists will have to stop blowing up buildings and shooting up shopping malls, and all bullies will have to stop bullying.
That's option #1. I'm not too optimistic about that one.
Option #2, though, is observable throughout history. Here it is: there must be a balance of power.
I am a child of the 1980s- I grew up in the waning days of the Cold War. I grew up under the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union constantly in the back of my mind. However, nuclear war with the USSR never happened. Why?
Was it because the USSR was a good, moral country with concern for human life? Hardly.
It was because they knew that if they nuked us, we'd nuke them back. They would have nothing to gain and would lose everything. In other words, there was a balance of power. Therefore, there was peace.
It is this way in everything- where power is balanced, there is peace. Countries that are mutually capable of defending themselves from the others are rarely, if ever, invaded. When everyone has the same amount of power, the people live in peace. Only when there is an imbalance of power- one side has more than the other- is there the threat of war or hostilities. A major imbalance of power resided in Germany and Poland in 1939. The Wehrmacht was light years more sophisticated and deadly than the Polish army- the Wehrmacht Panzer tanks easily slaughtered the Polish cavalry (yes, cavalry as in horses versus tanks) in the blitzkrieg. Where there is no balance of power, there is tension, warfare, and lack of peace.
This is also true within a country. Yesterday I wrote about the seemingly contradictory phenomenon that the most peaceful and non-aggressive people in the world- Christians- seem to value gun ownership highly. Private gun ownership is essential to balancing the power between the people and the government.
When there is a balance of power between the people and the government, there is peace. If the government is armed and the people are armed, there is peace. If one side is armed and the other is not, there will be hostility and oppression resulting in tyranny. Christians know that having a balance of power is essential to a free society where liberty and freedom are a reality.
I would challenge anyone who disagrees with me to name one tyrannical dictator who allows his people to keep and bear arms.
A few years ago, I played soccer with a bunch of students from Iran. As we were hanging out on the sidelines, I asked them about the Iranian president at the time- Mahmoud Admadinijad (spelling?)- and what they thought of him. "Everyone in the world hates us because of him," one student said. Another student told me that his uncle had been killed by the Iranian government for political dissent.
I asked why, if everyone hated him so much, do the people not rise up and throw him out. They said, "We can't. The government has all the guns. We aren't allowed to own weapons." They were shocked when I told them that in America, you could walk into any shop and simply buy one, that the right to keep and bear arms was not only legal, but was protected in our Constitution. Their jaws literally dropped.
See, in Iran, there is no balance of power between the people and the government. Therefore, there is tyranny. The Iranian government would think twice about oppressing its people if the people were armed. There would be no arrests for political dissent, no oppression, no tyranny. There would be peace.
The same is true in any society, any culture, and any people. Having a balance of power is essential to a free society. I would almost go as far as to say that gun ownership is essential to having a free society. I know there are many who disagree with me, but if they were honest with themselves, they are operating under the assumption of Option #1- that people are good and virtuous and peace will naturally happen because that's just what good people do.
Like I said yesterday, Christians are peaceful people. Jesus had no time for the gun-totin' shoot-first-ask-questions-later cowboy thing that some people have going on. That's not what I am talking about. Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek, to be willing to suffer for being wronged, to pray for our enemies and love those that persecute us. That is clear in His teaching. Please don't think that I am advocating violence or anything like that. I am advocating for peace. I am simply saying that peace is only achieved in two ways- the goodness of people (which I don't see happening) or the balance of power between people. Since option number one isn't happening, the only way for peace is to have a balance of power. Therefore, gun ownership is the key to peace.
The Miss America Pageant has taught us two things- one, everyone wants world peace, and two, it ain't happenin'.
Why?
History has shown us that peace will only happen one of two ways. In order to live in peace, one of two things absolutely has to happen.
One, we will have to trust in the inherent goodness of people. We have to turn from being selfish, self-centered, immoral people to being decent, law-abiding, wonderful people. All criminals will have to stop being criminals, all nations will have to stop going to war, all terrorists will have to stop blowing up buildings and shooting up shopping malls, and all bullies will have to stop bullying.
That's option #1. I'm not too optimistic about that one.
Option #2, though, is observable throughout history. Here it is: there must be a balance of power.
I am a child of the 1980s- I grew up in the waning days of the Cold War. I grew up under the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union constantly in the back of my mind. However, nuclear war with the USSR never happened. Why?
Was it because the USSR was a good, moral country with concern for human life? Hardly.
It was because they knew that if they nuked us, we'd nuke them back. They would have nothing to gain and would lose everything. In other words, there was a balance of power. Therefore, there was peace.
It is this way in everything- where power is balanced, there is peace. Countries that are mutually capable of defending themselves from the others are rarely, if ever, invaded. When everyone has the same amount of power, the people live in peace. Only when there is an imbalance of power- one side has more than the other- is there the threat of war or hostilities. A major imbalance of power resided in Germany and Poland in 1939. The Wehrmacht was light years more sophisticated and deadly than the Polish army- the Wehrmacht Panzer tanks easily slaughtered the Polish cavalry (yes, cavalry as in horses versus tanks) in the blitzkrieg. Where there is no balance of power, there is tension, warfare, and lack of peace.
This is also true within a country. Yesterday I wrote about the seemingly contradictory phenomenon that the most peaceful and non-aggressive people in the world- Christians- seem to value gun ownership highly. Private gun ownership is essential to balancing the power between the people and the government.
When there is a balance of power between the people and the government, there is peace. If the government is armed and the people are armed, there is peace. If one side is armed and the other is not, there will be hostility and oppression resulting in tyranny. Christians know that having a balance of power is essential to a free society where liberty and freedom are a reality.
I would challenge anyone who disagrees with me to name one tyrannical dictator who allows his people to keep and bear arms.
A few years ago, I played soccer with a bunch of students from Iran. As we were hanging out on the sidelines, I asked them about the Iranian president at the time- Mahmoud Admadinijad (spelling?)- and what they thought of him. "Everyone in the world hates us because of him," one student said. Another student told me that his uncle had been killed by the Iranian government for political dissent.
I asked why, if everyone hated him so much, do the people not rise up and throw him out. They said, "We can't. The government has all the guns. We aren't allowed to own weapons." They were shocked when I told them that in America, you could walk into any shop and simply buy one, that the right to keep and bear arms was not only legal, but was protected in our Constitution. Their jaws literally dropped.
See, in Iran, there is no balance of power between the people and the government. Therefore, there is tyranny. The Iranian government would think twice about oppressing its people if the people were armed. There would be no arrests for political dissent, no oppression, no tyranny. There would be peace.
The same is true in any society, any culture, and any people. Having a balance of power is essential to a free society. I would almost go as far as to say that gun ownership is essential to having a free society. I know there are many who disagree with me, but if they were honest with themselves, they are operating under the assumption of Option #1- that people are good and virtuous and peace will naturally happen because that's just what good people do.
Like I said yesterday, Christians are peaceful people. Jesus had no time for the gun-totin' shoot-first-ask-questions-later cowboy thing that some people have going on. That's not what I am talking about. Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek, to be willing to suffer for being wronged, to pray for our enemies and love those that persecute us. That is clear in His teaching. Please don't think that I am advocating violence or anything like that. I am advocating for peace. I am simply saying that peace is only achieved in two ways- the goodness of people (which I don't see happening) or the balance of power between people. Since option number one isn't happening, the only way for peace is to have a balance of power. Therefore, gun ownership is the key to peace.
This is all just theoretical. The only practical example you took was Iran. In that country, civilians are allowed to have guns. They possess more than the government does.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/iran
Furthermore there are many countries, particularly in Europe, which are undoubtedly free, and also have far fewer guns than the US.
I'd also point out that, heavily armed as the American population is, the American government heavily armed to a correspondingly great degree. The government avails of equipment and training that civilians couldn't match.