Op-Ed: Shooting my mouth off about right to carry guns

March 9, 2005
Tucson (AZ) Citizen

by Jeff Smith

They told us not to talk about politics or religion - not if we wanted to keep peace in the family. But they failed to mention guns. Bring up the subject of firearms in most circles and you get a pitying expression that says you aren't among the species that brought air-conditioning and Ingmar Bergman films to the planet.

It's this quick, cold cessation of discourse that makes it so hard to educate the anti-gun crowd to the realities of the matter. They regard people who own and use guns as children of a lesser god, incapable of reason and probably devoid of kindness and compassion. One doesn't talk with creatures like this; one has gate guards to keep them at bay.

And it is this elitist mentality, and the hopeless notion that you can hire people to protect you from harm, that drives the movement to do away with guns in our communities.

I could be wrong about some of these suppositions, but not by much. First among their beliefs, I think, is that humans have evolved beyond hunter-gatherers who struggled to reach the top of the food chain. We are kinder and gentler now, they reason, forgetting that this was George H.W. Bush's line, and the food chain is Trader Joe's.

Pardon me, but if you want to talk evolving, consult Charles Darwin. He'll explain how evolution is about developing the perfect predator.

Much as we wish to live in a world where everybody is nice and nobody has need for a gun, it demonstrably ain't so. There are nasty creatures out there, many of them with opposable thumbs, who dress neatly and cannot be distinguished from a Montessori teacher ... until they stick a 9 mm in your ribs and say, "Your wallet, s'il vous plaît."

What do you do in a case like that?

What does a gun-carrying NRA member do in a case like that? According to the doctrine of those who teach gun owners to qualify for concealed-carry permits, you give him your wallet. Your money isn't worth your life.

It is these everyday occurrences everywhere in the world, sadly, that speak to the necessity for law-abiding people to arm themselves.

There is no right more intrinsic than the right of self-defense: not free speech, not freedom of religion - nothing. If you are set upon by attackers who do not hesitate to use every available means to injure or kill you, is there any earthly authority you can imagine that could justly deny you the right to defend your life?

Of course not. There's no instinct more basic than this.

Click here to read the entire op-ed in the Tucson (AZ) Citizen.