Writing for the Los Angeles Times, author Sonia Wolff described her experience of she and her husband becoming gun owners. In my doorstep edition this morning it is Reluctantly packing heat. In the online edition, it is The reluctant gun owner. It's a wonderful piece... The essay, not the revolver they looked at.
One of the most important observations Sonia makes was this: "We should have a pistol," I finally declared. "Something I can use." Still, I wrestled with the idea of whether I could become someone else, someone capable of violence. Was I really prepared to kill someone who threatened my property or my life?
If I may, the truth is that you do not become someone else, you grow up. The reluctance Sonia describes is experienced by nearly everyone who contemplates defensive gun use. The real important thing to notice is that we are not really talking about becoming someone else, someone worse, someone angry, we remain ourselves in a new acumen of personal responsibility. Scary. Lots of self-doubt come with any large responsibility, lots of diligence comes, too. Lots of heat from others comes, too. With it comes a personal independence though, which Sonia does not seem to fear. Her frankness in her essay says that.
Nor are we becoming capable of violence. Self-defense is not violence; we do not shoot to kill, we shoot to stay alive. What is the difference? The difference is that one is aggression and the other is defense. If you even tried to stop a child abduction, would that be violence or preventing violence? The first, unchecked, destroys families and whole communities, and the second protects individuals, families and whole communities.
Free people live by the self-restraint of using lethal force only when facing such grave danger. A new gun owner needs to understand that she is not engaging in violence, but in resisting it. Reluctantly, but necessary. You are not the aggressor.
But Sonia's essay speaks to another depth non-gun owners should understand. As Sonia's learning experience has begun, her reluctance is only normal for everyone. As she learns more – more about her own authority to act in the absence of police, how armed citizens are a deterrent to crime, and how she becomes better and better with a gun, Sonia has already learned two of the most profound truths of gun ownership in freedom: 1. She comes to understand the deep responsibility of gun ownership not only in the handling of a dangerous device when not needed, but in the use of it should it become necessary when it is needed in the realization that this is a duty to others as much as it is to self. For Sonia Wolff, greater independence which comes with reluctance is welcomed nevertheless. 2. She and her husband accept this first truth on the realization that you draw your weapon because there is no one else. Independence, but I repeat myself.
At the range, Sonia may have learned that police have no duty to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others. She didn't mention it, but it's clear that she learned a lot and will continue to learn. They'll do just fine.
One of the greatest truths you can learn in going to the range - even reluctantly - is how you are much more in a righteous control of things in life than your servants would have you believe. This would not be at the point of a gun, but through your knowledge, awareness of your authority, having self-confidence, and in your refusal to be intimidated. Gun ownership does not make you hostile, gun ownership is a result of your discovery of your own independence and sovereign authority.
Welcome, Sonia and family.
What's just as interesting is that the Times elected to print it. Perhaps reluctantly.
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Comments
A gun is a tool in our society. Nothing more and nothing less except that it carries with it a far greater responsibility in it's proper use. A gun can only do one thing and that is to destroy something. A gun does not determine what is destroyed. The person pulling the trigger determines that. yes, a good person uses a gun only as the last resort of self-defense as it should be when not on the range or out hunting. But when we finally except the fact we are willing to use a gun to protect our lives or the lives of others we also face the fact we are willing to take a life and make a judgment call usually reserved for God in our religious beliefs. And there are usually no second chances once that trigger is pulled. That is a heavy responsibility but more and more people are looking deep inside of who they are and making that decision. Is it growing up or just finally facing the facts of our society and not believing the lies of politicians anymore. we have to protect ourselves.
If this woman has to question whether she can actually kill someone threatening her life, then maybe she doesn't have a life worth protecting.
In the late sixties, one of my closest girlfriends said "How can you shoot someone???"
We know that though this may seem the question, it is NOT the question. Our duty to all of America is to hear what the question really is whenever anyone asks it. It's generally the exact same question, more or less. Every one of us is a Good Will Ambassador for all of liberty, and who better to help her and her husband understand it than us?
If someone attacks me, or puts any life in mortal danger, then it is the ATTACKER who has chosen this and bears full responsibility for the consequences.
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