“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence. To secure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good.” –George Washington

By Jack Beavers

During our Cold War with what President Ronald Reagan described as the “Evil Empire”, US Policy was Deterrence through Assured Mutual Destruction (AMD). In layman’s terms we realized we could not wage war against the evil without unacceptable losses – so we made sure that if evil started a war, they would do so knowing they were assuring their own total destruction.

 

With this goal in mind, the US implemented AMD through three separate nuclear weapons delivery platforms – better known as the Nuclear Triad.

• Fixed, hardened ICMB silos.
• Bombers with Countermeasures capable of penetrating enemy defenses.
• Stealthy, undetectable nuclear submarines.

Please note that locations for only one of these delivery platforms were known to the evil and therefore vulnerable in a first attack. The locations of the other two weapons platforms were unknown due to mobility, stealth, and/or counter measures.

Today, the people of the United States face the same evil on the domestic front. Regardless of the form in which it manifests itself (i.e., school shootings, workplace violence, domestic terrorism, sociopathic outbursts, drug cartels, inter-city gangs, etc.), this evil is best confronted by the AMD-Triad-style deterrence framework of the Cold War. This is necessary because in spite of volumes of gun control legislation, evil continues to find a way to violate the so-called “Gun Free Zones.” Evil does not recognize any authority.

“There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.” — Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

To ensure against domestic acts of evil, we must allow and support the individual freedom and responsibility to confront evil with deadly force. The TRIAD of such individual responsibility would be comprised of the following:

• Fixed Silos: Uniformed police officers and SWAT Teams.
• Countermeasures: The right of all citizens to apply for a concealed handgun license, and, when approved, the right to carry their weapon at all times.
• Undetectable: Eliminate all Gun Free Zones. Evil does not comply with this law anyway, and such laws prevent potential defenders from carrying deterrent weapons.

Our first President recognized the importance of arming the citizenry:

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence. To secure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good.” –George Washington

Two arms of this Domestic Triad currently exist. However, well-meaning politicians have forbidden the existence of the third, undetectable arm. It should be said that even when the third arm is implemented, the Domestic Triad will not eliminate all attempts by evil people to hurt and kill – but it will deter many and will greatly mitigate the impact of the violence that does occur. In addition, it will bring about the transformation society desperately needs: from believing that ensuring our personal protection is solely the responsibility of the government to taking individual responsibility for the protection of ourselves, our families, and our neighbors.

Our Founding Fathers saw how vital it was for the citizenry to have easy access to arms, both for the kinds of protection just mentioned and for a more fundamental protection against government tyranny. As Jefferson said, “The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

Moreover, in the case of gun-free zones, the government is preventing citizens from defending themselves against other citizens! If the government refuses to allow and support individual defense, it enables evil. In establishing gun-free zones, the government strips the ability of individual Americans to protect themselves and their fellow man against the evil acts of others. Any subsequent evil comes as a failure of the government. After stripping the citizenry of their own ability to defend themselves, the government assumes all responsibility for their defense.

Remember 1991 and the Luby’s cafeteria mass murder in Texas? From Wikipedia:

The Luby’s massacre was a mass murder that took place on October 16, 1991, in Killeen, Texas, United States when George Hennard[1] (born October 15, 1956) crashed his pickup truck through the front window of a Luby’s cafeteria, shot 50 people (killing 23), exchanged shots with responding police, and then hid in a bathroom and fatally shot himself. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history until the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14th, 2012.

One Luby’s survivor (Suzanna Hupp) testified before the U.S. Senate that had she been allowed to carry her gun into Luby’s that day, her mother would still be alive. Texas answered in 1995 by issuing concealed handgun licenses. The only places we are forbidden to carry are Gun-Free Zones.

 

Jack T. Beavers is an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Consultant with a BS in Chemical Engineering (BSChE), a Professional Engineering (PE) license, a Certification in Business Management (CBM), and a Certification as an Internal Control Specialist (CICS). He has previously held a Certification as an ISO-9000 Internal Auditor – and his work history includes Enterprise Risk Assessment responsibilities as a Manager of Internal Audit. Please email your comments to forum@ajustsociety.org.

 

The CJS Forum seeks to promote an open exchange of ideas about the relationship between faith, culture, law and public policy. While all the articles are original and written especially for the CJS Forum, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for a Just Society.

 

Marine Joshua Boston wrote this letter in reaction to Senator Feinstein’s call for registering guns and more restrictive gun control:

 

Senator Dianne Feinstein,

I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government’s right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma’am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.

I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America.

I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.

I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.

We, the people, deserve better than you.

Respectfully Submitted,
Joshua Boston
Cpl, United States Marine Corps
2004-2012

 

 

 

 

Also please consider:

Gun Culture and Gun Control Culture

 

Help Make A Difference By Sharing These Articles On Facebook, Twitter And Elsewhere:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•