So You Got A Gun For The Holidays, Now What? The Philosophy.

You have your gun. You’ve cleaned it, you’ve loaded it up, and you know the basics of how to use it. You can press the trigger and hit a dinner-plate sized target at 7 yards. Maybe you can even ding steel a football field away. Awesome! Seriously.

But there’s a whole philosophical and social layer to firearms ownership.

The Philosophy Of Gun Ownership

A gun shouldn’t just be something you trot out on the weekends when the gang comes over to watch the game. Nor should it be something you keep in the shadows as some sort of secret shame. Yes, exercise a certain amount of operational security, but one shouldn’t feel that the ownership of a gun is a cause for being ridiculed or scorned.

Those Philosophical Details

Owning a gun isn’t just about the gun. In this country and many others, there’s a philosophy to it. Owning a gun is an expression of self-reliance and independence, and the values embodied in the United States Constitution. It is a blunt and pointed expression that says you aren’t going to depend on others, or the government, for your defense. A gun is the single most effective self-defense tool ever devised. A gun puts a 90 pound woman on par with a 200 pound man in a fight. The assailant could be built like the proverbial brick shithouse, but a few rounds of well-placed Hornady 9mm hollow-point bullets will collapse that shithouse, decisively.

A rifle changes a person from a subject to a citizen, as Jeff Cooper said. With a firearm, you can say “no” and have the means to back it up, whether the person making demands is a criminal, or a government employee gone rotten.

Your gun isn’t something to be trotted out on weekends after the game, it is the definitive expression of indepencence and self-determination. Your gun ups the odds considerably against those who mean to deprive you of your rights, whether it be common street trash, or a corrupt government. But I repeat myself, ha ha.

The Social Ramifications

Yes, that bundle of metal, plastic, and funny-smelling powder (don’t sniff the gunpowder!) has social ramificaitons in owning said bundle. Unless you’re fortunate enough to be in a social circle of liberty-minded individuals, you’re going to get judged because of your new acquisition. People will claim they “thought they knew you”, and that sort of thing. Let’s be honest - you’re still the same, sane, and caring person you always were. You’re just taking direct responsibilty for your life, rather than pawning it out to a generally-ineffective and sometimes-malevolent government. You’re still you, but you have the means to have a fighting chance on sticking around this ball of rock for awhile longer.

However, I’m not gonna lie to you. There’s going to be social friction. You’ll lose acquaintances over your ownership of a gun. Though one could argue those acquaintances weren’t worth keeping around if they are that judgemental. Hell, when I started this blog and Instagram crossed the streams and revealed my real-world identity, I got screamed at by this banshee-woman of a progressive acquaintance. Let’s just say upon further inspection it was a good thing. That person and others like her I no longer concern myself with them.

On the upside, you’ll find that gun owners in general are some of the kindest and most welcoming sort on the planet. In my time being involved in the gun world and as a sometimes-obnoxious advocate for the Second Amendment in general, I’ve made some solid lifelong friends, and ironically some acquaintances of mine who were scared to admit they were into things like effective self-defense and the Second Amendment have now become lifelong friends. Also, I’m blessed to have learned other things because of it. Fieldcraft and survival skills. General handyman things. And so on. The only thing my “progressive” acquaintances seemed to want to teach was scorn and contempt for anyone to the right of Marx.

Also, at no point was my background or other beliefs called into question. The people who welcomed me into the fold didn’t care that I supported marriage equality (although my idea of marriage equality is just getting government out of marriage entirely), religious freedom, and things like that. All they saw was someone who wanted to learn about guns and the true nature of the Second Amendment.

That’s What It’s All About - Individual Freedom

You’re picking up that gun for the first time. It’s an amazing agglomeration of enginnering, physics, and chemistry. It’s basically weaponized math. Gun nerds can go toe-to-toe with any scientist, anywhere. But even more so than that, it’s symbolic of your stance on personal responsibility and individual freedom.

Welcome aboard.

Part 1 - The Basics

Part 2 - Training

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