Take me shooting, Part II: Personal Dignity in self-rule.

January 27, 9:06 AMLA Gun Rights ExaminerJohn Longenecker

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Nothing puts the dignity in personal dignity like the self in self-rule.

In Part I, I noted that first-time shooters first experience the power of the weapon the moment they fire it. A handgun is a very powerful device. I write about the power of the person in a nation of self-rule. Following this first experience, at various times for various people, there is a new experience; I wrote that the power of the person begins to coalesce in the mind of the first-time shooter, a sense of self again in a nation of self-rule. Something sets in; it is the realization that they have the power in their hands to refuse to be a victim, contrary to the lies of the anti-violence movement. Some want to take away that power to refuse to be a victim.

The scandals of 2008 merged gun owners and non-gun owners to a single sense of outrage that had previously been reserved only for liberty enthusiasts and so-called gun nuts. The liberty and gun nuts forecast that it would eventually get around to everyone. It has now.

Let me make an interesting suggestion; let’s get rid of the term self-reliance and replace it with Independence from our servants. Americans can regain their bearings from the shock of 2008 by clarifying what it is we really want: self-reliance is too vague. It even alienates some. Let’s revisit the experience first-timers find, and that is the escape from powerlessness. Let us regain our independence from our servants, their mandates, their silly misperceptions, insulting condescension, general abuses of powers, and, of all things, their use of force. Relying on yourself is a matter of self-respect and personal dignity, and it won’t come by a compelled dependency on servants.

The founders faced the very same kind of abuses of power we experience today, outrage in abuses of powers. The founders declared that we, the people, are the sovereign, and not the government. As with all sovereigns, it is we who have the monopoly on force, and we delegate what we want to without surrendering any of our own. As the sovereign, the monopoly on force is only one part of our total authority: the electorate’s direction of servants is being defied in nearly every single issue and crisis, not only in violent crime. Gun rights and freedoms are a very sensitive bellwether of future abuses of all rights like broken windows are a bellwether of urban blight. Now, the forecasts are coming true as indicated. Three little words: Take me shooting. Some have lost sight of what it is to be free.

Gun rights and freedoms are a very sensitive bellwether of future abuses of all rights like broken windows are a bellwether of urban blight. Now, the forecasts are coming true as indicated. Ask a pal to take you shooting.

The next step for many first-timers is to take more training, to learn more, to understand more about their own sovereignty in 2009. By the millions. Sometimes, you don’t know how to stop them from building their knowledge base, and eventually discovering the armed citizen - independence from our servants connection. Soon, it becomes obvious how many anti-liberty programs thrive on disarming more and more citizens. It is clear how many adverse programs from parenting to a National ID Card depend not only on crime, but call for disarming citizens to lock those programs in.

The next step for many is to take more training, to understand more.

Soon, for many, it becomes a matter of personal dignity. I should say that it returns, along with that refreshing escape from powerlessness that looked for a while to be taking personal dignity. It is the realization that the armed citizen can meet crime better than absentee theory, billions in wasted revenues, or wishful thinking programs that mandate that all citizens disarm.

In the final analysis, the decision and the freedom to be an armed citizen wherever you have a right to be protects your children and their children and their children and their own independence from their own servants.

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