Why the Right to Bear Arms?

To Protect Yourself and Family

Whether it is from murder, rape, sexual assault, battery, robbery, or kidnapping, everyone has a fundamental right to self-defense.  This extends to the protection of loved ones and friends. 

Some would have you believe that we can live in a utopian society where law enforcement will show up at your door like ordering a pizza. However, the harsh reality is that there are just under 700 thousand police in the United States for a population of 328 million.  That’s roughly 1 cop for every 450 Americans, the difference is much higher if you consider that only a fraction of the officers are on duty at one time. 

When seconds count, law enforcement is at best minutes away and at worst just there to draw a chalk line around your body.  Ideally, law enforcement will be there quickly, but the average response time for “priority one” calls in major US cities is just 7.5 minutes (1).  Response time averages go over 10 minutes if you add in small and medium sized cities.  OSHA requires fire extinguishers for workplaces because lives are saved when people on the scene have the ability to fight the fire while waiting for first responders.  This is the same reason people need the ability defend themselves.  It saves lives!

Also, keep in mind that police have no legal duty to protect you.  Based on the US Supreme Court decision in the Warren v. District of Columbia case, law enforcement has a duty to the “public at large.”  This was later backed up in court when a judge ruled against a lawsuit by Parkland students in the wake of the school shooting (2). 

Unrest

There are times when having an actual police response is preferred to none at all.  This is the situation many in major cities faced during the chaotic summer of 2020.  During this time, Chicago 911 dispatchers received some 65,000 calls in a single day when law enforcement lost almost complete control of the city.  In Columbus, Ohio, police were told by the mayor to “stand down” in the midst of the riots.  Unrest and lawlessness in Minneapolis-St.Paul caused over $500 million in property damages (3).  General unrest has a tendency to stretch law enforcement resources such that they are unwilling or unable to provide for basic law and order.  There is a reason 2020 saw a record 5 million new gun owners.  You can’t always trust government to be there.

“A man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” - Frederick Douglass

Tyranny

The freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, fair trial, to own property, protection from unlawful searches and seizures, and travel are taken for granted today.  However, we have these freedoms because someone bravely took up arms in the past.  Though we enjoy these freedoms now, forces of tyranny always lurk in the shadow, hoping to replace liberty with security.

Florida

Although we all enjoy the tropical and subtropical climate here, free from shoveling snow and plenty of sunshine, it does come with a downside.  Every year between June and November the state must go through a Russian roulette ritual with hurricanes.  Obviously, firearms are not going to protect you from hurricanes.  However, in the aftermath of a storm with it’s power outages and overstretched government resources, things sometimes devolve into disorder, violence, and looting.  The ability to defend yourself never becomes more apparent than when the thin veil of civilization breaks during a natural disaster.

The Social Aspect

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Gun owners usually point to the above reasons to defend their right to bear arms, but it’s much more.  This may come as a surprise to some, but gun owners DON’T want to use their firearms for violence.  For many gun owners it’s part of their culture and all about the social aspects of gun ownership.  From competition shooting to hunting to a simple day on the range with friends or family.  In a society that is increasingly characterized by social isolation and depression, bonding with others who share the same interest in firearms is a beacon of light with physical and mental benefits.

They Lie

The reasoning used to push gun control is a lie.  Gun control advocates misuse data to drive fear into Americans so they will watch the news or vote a certain way in an election. 

First of all, over two-thirds of gun deaths are from suicide, yes guns are used, but they are not the reason people commit suicide.  Japan has nearly an identical suicide rate yet firearm ownership there is non-existent.  Factors such as stress, loss of a job or relationship, chronic pain, and social isolation, all motivate people to kill themselves (4). Pushing the blame to firearms is disingenuous to the victims and fruitless in actually preventing suicides.

Secondly, the remaining third of gun related deaths are not from “assault weapons” as the news media would make you believe, all rifles make up only 3% of all firearm homicides (4).  Handguns account for the majority of all firearm related homicides.  Bans on rifles wouldn’t even dint the overall firearm death numbers.

Finally, mass shootings are extremely rare despite the picture the news media paints.  Over 12 years of data there is on average 113 deaths per year from mass shooting events.  This is less than deaths per year from knives (1,476), blunt objects (397), and even with your bare hands (600).  Even Everytown for Gun Safety, which is very much for gun control, points out (5):

“While the popular perception may be that mass shootings are the nation’s largest share of gun deaths, the data tells a different and more complex story. In reality, mass shootings are the tip of the iceberg of this country’s gun violence crisis. More than 99 percent of gun deaths in the US are from shootings other than mass shootings.”

The key point is gun violence is tragic and we should come together as a society to curb it.  However, gun control is not the answer and in most instances will make the problems worse.  The root cause for the vast majority of the gun deaths is from social and economic conditions.  Even if you used a “magical gun fairy” to remove all firearms from the United States, these factors would still remain.

Ultimately, guns are a convenient scapegoat for media and politicians to target because it distracts people from their failure as leaders.

Resources & Links

  1. Comparing the Average 911 Response Times in 15 Major US Cities, Safety.com, https://www.safety.com/comparing-the-average-911-response-times/
  2. Officers Had No Duty to Protect Students in Parkland Massacre, Judge Rules, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/parkland-shooting-lawsuit-ruling-police.html
  3. The Right to Armed Self-Defense in Light of Law
    Enforcement Abdication, David E. Bernstein, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3703927
  4. The Gun Homicide Epidemic Isn’t, BJ Campbell, https://hwfo.substack.com/p/the-gun-homicide-epidemic-isnt
  5. Twelve Years of Mass Shootings in the United States, An Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund Analysis, https://everytownresearch.org/maps/mass-shootings-in-america-2009-2019/
  6. Mass Shootings in the United States, https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/essays/mass-shootings.html