The Gun Is Civilization - Major L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

We are pleased today to welcome a new guest author to Two Sisters From The Right.  We are also excited that his essay deals with a subject that has created much discussion in our country for a long time.  When it comes to gun ownership, our population is pretty much split between those who approve and those who want to pass laws to ban the sale and ownership of guns. 

This is also a subject in which the Two Sisters have  somewhat differing opinions.   In Texas where Sister One lives, guns are a way of life.  Texans hunt, and because of its history of once being part of the wild west,  Texans keep guns for protection.  Sister Two lives in Suburban Chicago Metro area. She is not a gun owner.  There, many frown on gun ownership, and blame guns for a variety of violent acts.  I trust we'll hear from her as well, as she makes a compelling case for accidental deaths due to guns.

The fact is that guns don't kill people.  People kill people, and when one is hell bent on doing damage, killing, stealing, and committing other violent acts a gun isn't necessary, in fact, in many cases, it's not even the weapon of choice.  Perhaps this will bring about a discussion on gun safety awareness as well.

One might disagree with those who stockpile weapons and ammunition for self defense in the future. No one has the answer to that particular issue.  It is simply a matter of preference.  Do you want to live in an post apocalyptic world, or do you prefer to be gone? Under the Second Amendment, the choice is ours to make.  Change the law and we have no choice at all. 

The issue here, and the one that Major Caudill so accurately describes, is that a gun is the one equalizer that man can have to even the odds in an adversarial situation, especially when the adversary is also armed. 


We invite you to read and leave your comments.  We know Major Caudill would appreciate your feedback.  Thank you.





"The Gun Is Civilization"

by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)



Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.


In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.


When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.


There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.


People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.


Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.


People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.


The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

 The greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.