Thursday, July 29, 2010

On the Keeping and Bearing of Weapons.

I keep dogs. This is going to be funny as hell to some of my friends, because when I first came here I wasn't a particular fan of dogs. But I haven't really changed: before that I kept cats, and the principle applies to them as well.

Despite some argument with my now ex-wife, I have never declawed a cat. That's because cats need their claws even more than they need their fangs, for defense. Defense is the absolute right of a cat, so much smaller than many of the animals that would aggress against them. They mostly defend themselves very efficiently; their claws are like razors. I knew a big gray tom that sent a German Shepherd to the vet to have its guts sewed back in one time. Up till then that dog thought it was the biggest, baddest SOB in the valley, but it barely survived the encounter. The dog challenged the cat, and the cat attacked the dog. The cat had claws, and also superior tactics. Bet that dog didn't do that again.

Point being, the small and weak need weapons to defend themselves against the large and strong. That's just the way it is. I'm not a big fan of Thomas Hobbes, but he wasn't entirely wrong. We do exist in a state of nature. The word for the one who believes that weapons aren't needed because nature has been tamed, is fool. Nature always has the last laugh. And my life may be solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish, but I'd rather it not be short. Hence, like my dogs and my cat, I carry my weapons openly and at all times.

It is the privilege of all immature creatures to be protected by their parents, to the extent possible. It is the absolute right of all mature creatures to be protected by themselves. Adult dogs possess teeth. Adult cats possess razor-sharp claws. Humans...well, humans seem to have been short-changed by our Maker in this regard. But what we lack in natural weapons we compensate for by our ability to make artificial weapons. And we further have the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants. Left to my own devices my weapons would be clubs and maybe sharpened rocks. But fortunately I have access to the labors of Messrs Browning, Freeman, Garand, and Kalashnikov.

This morning my pup Little Bear killed and ate a large rabbit. Rabbits seem to have been designed to be prey animals, since they have only two means of defense: Stealth and speed. They have no effective weapons. So this rabbit, which was certainly mature and probably older than LB, went down his throat. If it'd had weapons, the outcome might have been different. I might have been rushing LB to the vet. I might have been burying him. Instead I'm just planning to buy some wormer medicine because LB had all the weapons in that encounter. It should be a teachable moment.

Look, I don't care about the Constitution. This predates and supersedes the Constitution, or any other writing of man. I am what I am, a mature creature walking the earth, and predators would hunt me if they could. But they have a poor chance of success, because I am frickin' armed.

That's all I'm trying to say.

10 comments:

TJIC said...

> Look, I don't care about the Constitution. This predates and supersedes the Constitution, or any other writing of man

Hoo-ah!

Well said.

CorbinKale said...

The guys who founded this nation held the same views. That man is endowed with Natural Rights, simply because he exists. Those Rights exist prior to, and regardless of governments.

In fact, they held that governments are instituted among men to secure those pre-existing Rights. And when the government failed to do that, it was to be altered or abolished.

I don't get my Rights from the Constitution, but I am happy to wield it as a weapon to fight the growing tyranny.

Tahn said...

"Look, I don't care about the Constitution. This predates and supersedes the Constitution, or any other writing of man. I am what I am, a mature creature walking the earth, and predators would hunt me if they could. But they have a poor chance of success, because I am frickin' armed."

Amen Brother Amen! Mind and body!

Anonymous said...

Very good analogy and I fully agree that all humans, worldwide, are endowed etc. and that human rights predate and preexist institutions of man and are, therefore, not SUPPOSED to be subject thereto. But, I tend toward CorbinKale's view, I'll use every weapon (U.S. Constitution) available even IF it SHOULDN'T be necessary.

I'd also like to emphasize that anyone that feels they need a firearm for protection is obviously a racist. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.


Diamondback

GunRights4US said...

I have long held the belief that rights such as self defense and bearing arms were superior to the Constitution, but nonetheless I once held great admiration for that document.

Then I read Hologram of Liberty by Boston T Party (actually i read it about three times because it was positively fascinating). He opened my eyes to some startling truths about both the Framers and the document they produced in Philadelphia. My view of the Constitution is now best summed up by the words of Lysander Spooner:

"...it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."

CorbinKale said...

"...it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."

Preposterous. A document contains ideas, nothing else. Humans are the ones who authorize and prevent conditions. Note that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence contain remedial ideas for when humans overly indulge in their lust for power. The Constitution is not to blame. Man's tendency is to abuse ANYTHING he gets his hands on.

Spooner's statement is that of a child, and has the same intellectual depth as gun control theory. The fact is that a gun is only as good or bad as the man behind it, just as our Constitution is only as good or bad as the people who support and defend it, or twist and ignore it for their own political purposes.

Kevin Benko said...

I would like to personally thank you for pointing out a very good analogy with the non-declawed cat and dog example. This will be very useful in discussions with victim-disarmers out there.

Joe said...

Not to be too harsh, but sometimes I'd like to put a gun to a bradycrat's head and ask them if they'd NOW like to bear some arms (I'm thinking a Sam Kinison impression would be appropriate in such a scenario).

GunRights4US said...

"The Constitution is not to blame. Man's tendency is to abuse ANYTHING he gets his hands on."

Then it failed didn't it? If it's such a great foundation to base a government upon, why has Leviathan been able to slip his bonds?

suek said...

>>Then it failed didn't it?>>

No...we did. And there were plenty of warning labels provided with it... We've ignored them.