A Nation of Riflemen First Needs Men
Remember, there is a big different between being a serf, subject or slave and a free citizen. It increasingly seems that few know and understand the difference. The right of a man to exercise that whether his antagonist be foreign or domestic, a rogue government or a savage criminal is a fundamental right of being a free man. That right is now less important, and many would argue even more so, than the right to free speech, assembly, press, or the freedom of a man to worship God without government persecution. A man has not just the right, but I believe the obligation, to protect his children, his family, his neighborhood, community and nation.
A Nation of Riflemen First Needs Men
The concept of a “nation of riflemen” was not the product of some unhealthy cultural obsession with weapons, nor did it arise from any remarkable immediate threat to popular safety. The concept was the natural outgrowth of spirit evident in the very founding of the United States, the spirit that made Americans unique and America great. The rifle is, implicitly, the symbol of the self-reliant American.
Why use a rifle as the symbol of self-reliance? Because no other thing, word, or sign is nearly as fitting. In The Prince, Nicolo Machievelli wrote, “[B]etween an armed and an unarmed man, there is no comparison whatsoever . . . .” An unarmed man is, by definition, a dependent. He is incapable of securing his own safety. He must depend on someone else to defend him against attack, whether from a stray dog, a lone criminal, an organized gang, or a foreign army. He rightly fears any separation from society, because solitude separates him from those who can defend him and singles him out as a target for those who might wish to harm him. He is tied by his interest in self-preservation to whoever assumes the burden of defending him. His need to be defended puts him at the mercy of his defender, and over time, he by neccesity becomes their subject.
