Noble Tyrants

It is taken as a point of faith by many that the presence of an armed population in third world countries leads to instability and increased violence. This is true in so far as the people living under tyrannical systems, which oppress them, may be inclined not to accept that tyranny if presented with the power to resist. This temporary increase in violence, if it occurs, is caused by the liberty that guns grant rather than the guns fueling crime or strife. It is the indeed the vilest of rationals that a people should remain oppressed for their own safety and good. This would be the rational of slave holders in this country if we had not purged that abomination from our country at gun point. Further more to subject the majority of a country's population to violence and predation in the name of social good is poor policy. How can it be just for men with machetes to use those weaker than themselves any way they see fit when there exists tools which can allow almost anyone to protect their body, rights, and homes?

Criminals and tyrants should fear to antagonize the populous and should respect the citizens' homes, villages, and cities as places where the danger of predation out weighs the gains. Through arms and a direct possession of rights, citizens will come to respect themselves and their fellow citizens. This will establish the stability and interpersonal consideration necessary for social and economic development. Governments can not be counted upon to create safety for their citizens especially when a monopoly of legal force makes the use of that force in the oppression of the citizens irresistible.

As it is impossible to prevent any person from employing violence against another. It is only fair that all people have a right to those weapon which best serve to equalize their ability for violence with everyone else's. It is dehumanizing to victims to know that no force within their reach is sufficient to protect them from those who might want to prey upon them. And it is emboldening and self-justifying to those who prey upon their fellow man to know that the resistance offered by their victim will be insufficient to threaten or stop them.

The people in the third world are oppressed both by those who wish them harm and by those who wish them good. Good intentions does not absolve one from the guilt of supporting and enabling oppression and predation. To stand in the way of your fellow man's liberation and to deny him even the chance to struggle to create a better life for himself and his people places one firmly in the ranks of this world's oppressors, jailers, and tyrants. That one can justify doing so as a virtue only places you with the most vile of oppressors.

A disparate distribution of power inevitable but also inherently unjust. Thus the rights, privileges, and immunities of each individual must be protected both through the efforts of the individual and the full weigh of social and governmental power. Allowing the rights of another to be infringed for any reason is the beginnings of tyranny and a road that leads to hubris and murder.