September 30th, 2021
Self-defense, like the will to do harm has nothing to do with weapons
In the present narrative of life it is common to confuse the right to defend one’s self and one’s property with the right to a particular weapon. On the other side of the same narrative it is common to link the will to do harm with a particular weapon or even the right to defend one’s self. The means to defend one’s self is a part of what it is to be a sentient being possessed of having both a spirit and a will. If one has need and access to weapons one will employ them and if one has need but no access one will find them or create them. It is also true that if one has a will to do harm one will do so by whatever means one can employ at the time. Any law as to having weapons or the scope defense of self has can only apply to those that adhere to the law. To impose restrictions on those that would abide by the law only limits those that seek to add value to the community while adding means to those that would victimize that community. If one has the right to defend one’s self that must extend to include the means to do so which can only be decided by the one who’s self is being defended. The right to, and the means by which, defend one’s self can be seen as the right to affirm one’s identity, standards of health and being able to express one’s self. All of these permutations of defense of the self can be translated as a sense of autogamy, the sense of one’s self as an individual apart from the masses.
It is only if one’s sense of agency is respected, as to one’s self via one’s own body and other property, can it be said that one’s right to self-defense is recognized. To defend one’s self is a part of defining one’s self which extends to setting one’s overall course in life balanced against having to deal with others doing the same. It is the balance and dance between individuals pursuing their own goals that creates and sustains community as a crucible that produces persons that are able to add to that community by being productive. If the powers that be would stop crime those powers should not allow space for crime to take root which would draw in those persons that would look for or create the means to commit crime. If no demand can be created then there will be nothing to supply in response to that demand because it does not exist. If the law abiding are able to defend themselves and thus prevent crime then the criminal population will be reduced, if laws are enforced there is no need to speculate as to the motivation for breaking those laws. If law makers are reminded that they are servants of the people, and not rulers, then following laws will be a matter of common sense and the law abiding can be sure that the laws are just because the subjects of those laws endorsed them. For the persons under the law to be sure they are just the people must see that the makers of those laws are equally held to the same laws. If the people do not use their own agency as to the law and the community then the law makers will not respect the power that such agency should represent in the world.
To be able to defend one’s self requires knowledge, practice and self-discipline, the means one chooses does not matter. A body of persons that are self-disciplined will also be self-governing with each person being a check on the other. Discipline based on the application of knowledge breeds power the management of that power brings insight and how that insight is used proves wisdom or its lack. Those with power from within cannot have it taken away, though that power can be invested in others and to seek power from others only proves that one does not have that power to begin with and so to with rights. Those that govern themselves will seek harmony between each other and that harmony will hinder and block those that are a threat to that harmony. Neither hand nor weapon can do harm without the will to do so and the will to harm needs neither hand nor weapon to go about its aim.