Intellectual self-defense or how to experience the thrill of making a anti-gunner cry…

This guest post by Mike N and entry in our non-fiction writing contest.

Just as we must learn to defend ourselves from attacks on our physical lives and property, so too we need to be able to identify cognitive attacks on our minds, that is, on our reasoning ability. We are bombarded with them almost daily in the press and elsewhere. They can be package deals, half-truths, hopelessly vague and imprecise notions and even outright falsehoods.

The latest attack is an invalid concept in the form of a package deal called ‘assault weapons.’ It is invalid for two reasons. First, in reality there is no such thing as an ‘assault weapon.’ The concept assault is a verb which refers to a specific kind of action: the starting of the use of violent force by some people against others. All weapons, no matter how weak or massively destructive, can be used either as initiatory force (assault) or retaliatory force (self-defense).

Second, it is a package deal because it packages together two things that are not the same, it tries to integrate the thing ‘weapon’ with one of its possible actions ‘assault’ and then condemning both as evil under the new designation ‘assault weapon.’ The intent here that people will vaguely accept the transfer of the evil of assault over to the weapon and give in to a ban on the weapon.

Now the gun banners are not saying that semi automatic weapons like the popular AR-15 cannot be used in self-defense. They’d never get away with such a claim. Instead, by framing the discussion in terms of ’assault,’ the issue of self-defense has been removed from the conversation. Also, the 2nd Amendment defenders are now placed on the defensive having to defend an allegedly immoral weapon.

The question now becomes what are they counting on to pull this off. The way I see it, guilt, unearned guilt at that. Our laws reflect the fact that assault is a crime, a violation of the rights of others. No honest citizen wants to assault other people. But if you can make gun owners feel guilty even immoral about owning guns meant only to assault innocents, some will turn in their guns to feel moral again. Also, if you can get non-gun owners to view gun owners in this light they may support you in your gun banning efforts.

To repeat, the tactic of this particular package deal is to package the evil of an action (assault) with the weapon used to do the assaulting and condemn both as equal evils. A fair analogy would be to package the action of reckless driving-a clear threat to the rights of others-with a certain type of car, say sport cars and to condemn both as equal evils under a new concept of ‘reckless cars’ then call for the banning of such cars. In reality, you punish the reckless driving not the cars. So it is with guns.

I’ve had people tell me that the concept ‘assault weapon’ doesn’t make any sense. In today’s intellectual climate, a feeling like that is usually correct. Then one must demand explicit definitions of the terms used by our intellectuals and be sure to explicitly define one’s own terms. Explicit thinking is the only thing that can cut through the fog of modern doublespeak.

So in conclusion, we must always be on our cognitive toes. Reject out of hand the invalid concept of ‘assault weapon.’ Don’t debate on their terms. Make the point that they cannot protect people’s right to life by taking away their right to defend it. That’s what the Second Amendment is all about. If one is not allowed to defend one’s life, one does not a have a right to life.

We would love to hear your ideas on how to make a anti-gunner cry in the comments below…

This contest will end on April 22 2013  – prizes include:

• First Place winner will receive - A $500 dollar gift certificate courtesy of LPC Survival that is good for $500 off anything on their site. And  a Wonder Junior Deluxe hand-mill courtesy of Kitchen Kneads,
• Second Place winner will receive – Two cases of MRE’s courtesy of Camping Survival and a $150 gift certificate off ofHornady Ammo from LuckyGunner.
• Third Place winner will receive -  a one year subscription to Personal VPN service courtesy of unspyable.

Well what are you waiting for – email your entries today. But please read the rules that are listed below first… 

Originally at : The Survivalist Blog.net · Copyright © 2013 · All Rights Reserved.

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