Why we have guns

A friend posted to Facebook a poem he wrote about school shootings. It was a well-crafted, tender hearted thing. But I disagreed with its premise. The gist of the poem’s argument is that fearful, weak men cling to gun rights and our gun rights lead to kids getting killed by school shooters.

I posted a response, then deleted it. I decided it was best not to argue with him. But I wanted to share my response with you, my readers:

Venezuela confiscated guns. Now the people are poor and starving and the Socialist President refuses to leave office after a stolen election. The army has fired on protesters and there's nothing they can do about it except to flee or die bravely. Venezuela is hardly the only example. Tyranny is often preceded by the outlawing of private weapons.

I have my guns to protect me. And to protect you. And to protect your children and our mutual way of life. A disarmed populace is a slave populace, and America shall not be a nation of slaves.

I read history books. And I know the depths of evil that mankind is capable of inflicting upon man. Fear? You would have to be a fool not to be afraid of such things after the examples of the 20th century. What a terrifying, awful century that was. And yet, I pray that God keeps me from ever facing the need to take another man's life to prevent a greater evil.

There are times when the black van comes to take you away while your wife is out of the house, for no reason or crime really, except the state is suspicious of you, or you are the wrong ethnicity. And your family comes home to find you gone. And there is no clue as to where you went. Perhaps they shoot you immediately. Perhaps you are sent to a labor camp. Perhaps you die in isolation in some far-off frozen barracks. Perhaps you show up to your family's doorstep a decade later, a haggard skeleton, a shell of the man you once were. Such things have happened in the world. A decade or two is all such evils need to gather steam. They shall not happen here.

That is not to take away from the tragedy of children killed by the evil use of dangerous tools like guns, knives, hands, or automobiles. I wish that such things did not happen in the world. May the Lord have mercy on us all, and look after their tender souls.

My friend and I went to college together. This year he is voting Democrat, and I am voting Republican. It’s an illustration of the difference in mindset that leads American peers to opposite political conclusions. He is moved by empathy for children who die in well-publicized acts of violence. Whereas I see the right to bear arms as an indispensable foundation for a free society, and a bane against tyranny.

Americans have been safe and comfortable for far too long. We forget what lies in the darkness outside our walls, biding its time for an opportunity to come within.