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“The Gun Is Civilization” by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation… and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)

Holy Cow! Look at all the hypocritical liberals that show up at the Copenhagen “Climate Change” conference in limousines or luxury cars. None of them taking public transport. What a bunch of jacked up crap that is.

AFP video of Limousine Liberals at Copenhagen

Also, if you think AFP is biased, just go to the Telegraph.Co.Uk newspaper website:

Telegraph Article

Now, I’m a firm believer that humans are not significantly contributing to any climate change, as that has been going on for millennia. However, I gotta believe that even though I’m not a climate change groupie, I am still more energy efficient and “green” than these wacko hypocrites.

Just check out all these brainwashed American college students that flew in jets (which use huge amounts of petroleum) all the way to Denmark, only then to heckle the Americans For Prosperity presenters with taunts of “Americans for Prosperity? or Americans for Clean Energy?” or some such nonsense. Clean energy, huh? Did you fly over the Atlantic on an electric solar-powered airplane? I don’t bloody think so, mate!

AFP Video of Extremely Rude American Students

Hopefully those kids are going to grow up and be ashamed of how hoodwinked they were, once they realize how much of a sham this whole climate change nonsense really is.

Off-Road Vehicle Access to Utah Wilderness Areas Should be Restricted

Position Essay #1

Darren Larson

Zoology 407 — Brigham Young University — Fall 1999

In the state of Utah, there have been many debates about whether allowing ORV (off-road vehicle) access to many of the wilderness areas would be detrimental to the ecological balance of these areas.  It is somewhat of a heated issue due to the large number of ORV enthusiasts that clamor for rights to use public land as playgrounds, and the equally large number of environmental activists who are shocked by the considerable impact that extensive ORV use has made on some of Utah’s wilderness areas.  As both an ORV enthusiast and environmentalist, I feel I have a good solution to the

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Habitat Fragmentation and Speciation

Darren Larson

Zoology 407 – Brigham Young University – Fall 1999

December 8, 1999

Introduction

The human population on earth was 6.0 billion as last count, up 1 billion from just 13 years ago.  Even though the global average birth rate is down from what it used to be during “frontier” times, the death rate has also been significantly reduced.  With this increasing growth rate and technology that allows humans to have a higher standard of living, we are seeing an increased consumption of the earth’s natural resources.  In a 1994 report tracking certain global resource consumption indicators, we see that there have been several to many hundred percent increases in the consumption of the world’s resources across the board from 1950 to 1991  (Brown et al., 1994).   This includes grain and meat production, fish catch, oil and gas extraction, irrigated land area, fertilizer usage, etc.  According to data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, during this time period the earth’s human population only grew 109%!  If the earth’s resource usage to human population growth ratio remains at this level (many:1 as opposed to 1:1), we could run into some serious problems in the not too far distant future.

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Patterns of Secondary Succession Following Range Fires on West Mountain, Utah County, Utah

Darren Larson

Brigham Young University Zoology 351
Provo, Utah

October 1998

Abstract

Fire ecology is an important tool in managing ecosystems throughout the world.  It is important to understand how fire affects the succession of flora in a natural habitat.  A study was made of four burn areas on the west side of West Mountain in Utah County, Utah to determine patterns of secondary succession in sagebrush-grass rangeland.

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Pollution Issues of the Marine Environment

Darren Larson

Brigham Young University
Range Science 347

April 1999

Introduction

Seventy percent of the earth’s surface is covered with sea water.   The good health of the worldwide marine ecosystem is essential to the survival of life on the planet.  Oxygen and carbon dioxide balance is maintained in large part by the massive amounts of photosynthetic cyanobacteria found in the oceans.  Millions of tons of food are harvested yearly.  The water cycle and climates also revolve around the action of the seas.  There are certainly other ways in which we depend upon this water for our survival that we haven’t even discovered.  Ironically, we are poisoning the very life blood of our planet.  But we don’t call it poison, we call it pollution.

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To Drain or Not to Drain – Lake Powell

Darren Larson

Political Science 535

Brigham Young University

Fall 1998

To drain or not to drain, that is the question that has been surrounding the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area for several years now. Plenty of good and rational reasons have been given by proponents of each side of the controversy, and I agree with many of the points made. However, I propose that this issue was in reality settled several decades ago and is no longer something that can be considered due to the increased dependence on the infrastructure that is now in place. I don’t know how much of a controversial issue it was back in the 1950′s when the plans to build a dam were approved, but that was the time to contest whether there should have been one or not.

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On Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies

Darren Larson

Political Science 535

Fall 1998

Effecting a stable community with long-term economic growth is an exercise in effective planning and follow up. I believe this is the point that the author wanted to make in his book Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies. There are several key elements and principles that govern this planning process that I will discuss briefly that I hope will support my thesis.

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The Transient

Scott L. Ross

It was only four o’clock when the dense, dark clouds gathered and the rain started to come. The drops impinged incessantly on the buildings and streets. From the Nordstrom storefront, to the dark alleys along First Avenue, the air was think and dank.
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One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that “violence begets violence.” I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure – and in some cases I have – that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy. – Jeff Cooper