PostHeaderIcon Gun-Free Existence

To the timid souls and precious snowflakes, perennially advocating gun control and/or a gun-free existence:

Have you ever lived in a totally gun-free society, where even the police had no firearms, and there was no military? I did, back in the late ’60s on a tropical island out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. At one point, there was a frightening period of political upheaval, before an election. Whipped up by Chicom backed ‘community organizers,’ for the “People’s United Party,” the restless natives, drunk on toddy (fermented palm sap), began rioting.

The sparse police force, armed only with truncheons, was completely overwhelmed by rioters wielding pangas (machetes), and beyond useless at crowd control. Without an airport, and located a thousand miles from the nearest land mass of Africa, there simply was nobody they could call for mutual aid backup. It got pretty ugly for a few days. I can just imagine the special snowflakes ensconced on today’s Ivy League campuses, stamping their dainty feet over there being no phones, with which to dial 911 demanding their “safe spaces,” be cleared of the unpleasant riffraff.

The generally ex-military American expats living there, were on our own, and also unarmed; but not quite helpless. Yankee ingenuity was employed in preparing to defend our homes and families. After unstringing our spear guns, and fabricating powerful slingshots with surgical tubing, we turned our attention to what today are called IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). It happened that large 4 & 6 inch firecrackers were readily available, in the Chinese sundry shops scattered around the island. Encased in glued-on nails, they made passable fragmentation grenades.

Cherry bombs, installed with shortened fuses, in pipes capped on one end packed with pea gravel, made serviceable defensive shotguns. True, they were single shot; but incredibly easy and cheap to make, so we kept stacks of them at hand. The most formidable item in our arsenal, however, turned out to be the old insurgent standby, Molotov Cocktails. Gasoline and rags were readily available. Empty liter sized beer bottles were ubiquitous in our youthful environment.

Have you ever messed with one of these things? Be careful! Until my experiments, I had always assumed that they were just a convenient method for getting fire from point A to point B. Naturally, after constructing my first one, I wanted to test it. My home was on the coast, and there was a convenient large rock above the water about 20 feet offshore from my back yard. That seemed like a safe target, so I lit the wick and threw it.

Holy mother of Zeus! I just barely had time to hit the deck, as it exploded and sent shards of glass singing over my foolish head. I had no idea that they were a form of fuel air bomb, which work like a miniature MOAB. When the glass breaks, and the gasoline vapors mix with the oxygenated air, the burning rag ignites the highly explosive mixture, with spectacular results.

When finished, I was more prepared for standing off an angry mob of communist inspired, anti-American rioters, than had I been armed with a so-called assault rifle. Fortunately, my servants passed the word about my formidable defensive preparations in the community, which thankfully forestalled the need to ever use them. After a few days, a British frigate appeared on the usually clear horizon.

It anchored beyond the reef, and sent a shore boat with a dozen armed British Marines ashore. All they had to do, was parade up and down the main street a couple of times, at shoulder arms. The riots were instantly over, and the election proceeded without further ado. Incidentally, the communist Peoples United Party was resoundingly defeated, the Chicom agitators sent packing, and the friendly laid-back island lifestyle reasserted itself.

I have shared this vignette to make several points. First, those advocating for gun-free zones and/or a gun-free society haven’t a clue what they are suggesting. Even a nominally pacific society of cheerful people, which ours certainly isn’t, can be riled up to commit violence by demagogues. Access to and skill with repeating firearms, can make the weakest man or woman the equal of a gang of brutes. It is incredibly foolish not to avail oneself of such defensive tools.

Secondly, as long as any teenaged punk or crazed Jihadi, can buy gasoline, the notion that gun control would make society safer is a cruel joke. The Orlando shooter, who was unlikely acting alone anyway, could have easily created even more carnage, with a few simple Molotov Cocktails in a backpack, which do not require a background check to acquire. A cigarette lighter, a couple of gallons of gasoline, an old T-shirt, and a twelve-pack of bottled beer, or a case of mason jars, is all that is required. We should hope the Jihadists stick to knives and firearms.

Then, notice the effect of the arrival of the armed Marines, who never had to confront any rioter. The appearance of a few firearms, and the implied threat to use them, trumped hundreds of machete wielding malcontents, who quickly faded back into the jungle. At first glance, that appears to be a good thing, which bolsters the argument for defensive guns; but think again, a little deeper.

This time, from the perspective of the hoi polloi, who (rightly or wrongly) felt they were being oppressed, by the ‘establishment’ controlling the government. The wind went out of their sails, because they were outgunned and thus effectively disarmed. Again, it would depend on one’s point of view, whether this was a good thing or not. At the time, I reckoned it good; but as an educated and apparently ‘rich’ American, I was effectively considered part of the aristocracy of that Third World country.

Now, I am only part of the hoi polloi of America, with a government that no longer seems benign, and more often strikes me as oppressive and increasingly tyrannical. From that perspective, my foreign experience only reinforces my resolve, to never allow the Progressives to disarm the citizenry on these shores, no matter what it takes. Does this make any common sense whatever, to the gun control advocates, who increasingly appear to be stuck on stupid? â—„Daveâ–º

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