MYTHS

If you think defending the essential human rights of your fellow citizens, including the right of children not to be murdered with machetes, thrown into gas chambers, down wells or onto fires is not worth fighting for then what would you fight for? We find the idea of using deadly force against human beings abhorrent as we are all God's children, but the greater evil is to do nothing while people commit evil acts against defenseless innocents. Unless Good Samaritans are willing and able to take up arms they may not be in a position to deter such evil, increasing the chances that crimes against humanity will occur.

2. Militia members are extremists.

Characterizing people who wish to join a nation's armed forces as extremists strikes us as a little extreme. No doubt a few extremists join police, army and militia organizations, but they are a tiny minority that do not represent the true face of these organizations. A tiny minority of self-described Christians blow up abortion clinics, but it would be wrong to condemn Christianity and Christians because of the actions of a few misfits who do not represent the ideals of the group to which they claim to belong. People who take up arms in defense of our essential human rights are Good Samaritans, not extremists.

3. Widespread gun ownership does not deter tyranny.

Anti-gun groups (often run by closet fascists or pacifists) heap ridicule upon anyone who suggests that civilians armed with small arms offer any kind of credible deterrent to tyranny, but if millions of ordinary people are armed with rifles suited to military use we believe they pose a very effective deterrent to tyranny, especially if members of an organized military force like a Home Guard style militia, a fact acknowledged by the actions of numerous prospective tyrants who went to great lengths to disarm their victims and the general population before ending democracy, for reasons that are all too obvious.

4. Gun ownership is highly dangerous.

Statistically gun ownership is a low risk activity. So long as firearms are properly handled and stored the risk is negligible. Most gun deaths are suicides, which can be a substantial number of people each year in nations with high gun ownership rates, but a United Nations study (E/CN.15/1997/4) found no correlation between a nation's gun density rate and murder or suicide rates. Firearm ownership and being a member of your nation's armed forces via an organized militia is not a risk free activity (especially without government approval), but some risks are worth bearing for the greater public good.

5. Tyranny is inconceivable in my country.

One needs to realize that history does not stop and events have a way of repeating themselves due to traits inherent to human beings. One needs to think on the scale of centuries and millennium, not years or even decades. One then finds certain patterns emerge, namely the tendency of elites to centralize power to shore up their position in society. It is perfectly natural to empower oneself, but putting one's self-interest above the public interest can damage society - a common phenomenon among elites who wish to disempower (hence disarm) people who have lower status than themselves.

6. Only government employees should have guns.

In a democracy legitimate power stems from the people, not an elite in the form of politicians, clerics, generals, aristocrats or the rich. Thus is follows that the people should reserve the power of the sword to protect their essential rights as a last resort, which will in most instances serve to deter tyranny and atrocities. History is littered with the corpses of failed democracies and minorities who were subsequently killed as a result of the centralization of power into the hands of an unaccountable minority controlling government. Civilian disarmament endangers life and liberty by removing an important deterrent to tyranny.

7. The military can be relied on to stop genocide.

Some soldiers prefer not to fight if outnumbered or are the very people committing the genocide. At Srebrenica in 1995 Dutch peacekeepers handed over more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys they were supposed to be protecting to Serb troops who promptly murdered them all. That year Australian soldiers (armed medical detachment) stood by as Tutsi soldiers murdered thousands of Hutu civilians. In the 1994 Rwandan genocide Belgian peacekeepers watched as a group of fellow soldiers were murdered by Hutu extremists because they were not authorized to intervene. An uncomfortable truth that must not be forgotten.

8. Defending minorities is not my problem.

We believe citizens who are able have a duty to participate in the defense of their fellow human beings, ideally by joining a Home Guard style militia. If your nation is controlled by an elitist regime which does not allow good adults to join a state run or approved militia group then the burden you face may be onerous, as this anti-democratic policy endangers your community and must not be allowed to stop you becoming a fully equipped member of your nation's [unorganized] militia (one should seek to have this policy changed peacefully by persuading the government to change it or vote it out of office).

9. Mainstream media is neutral on private gun ownership.

Power hungry elites do not want ordinary people owning practical defensive arms, many of whom own or control media corporations which glorify criminal gun violence (real and fictional) that they know promotes copycat crimes they exploit to further their push to restrict private gun ownership, while at the same time stigmatizing the private ownership of defensive arms. Hence we see countless movies and TV shows glorify said violence while giving spree killers who misuse guns the notoriety they crave by publishing their names and photos.

The mainstream media routinely use terms like "shooting spree", "active shooter" and "gun massacre", but never terms like "driving spree", "active driver" or "vehicle massacre" as they do not want to stigmatize or restrict private vehicle ownership, and never call for (or report calls for) tougher vehicle restrictions or bans of any vehicles after attacks committed with them (including the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France, in which 86 people were murdered and another 434 injured). These elites want to give the security forces that protect their class a monopoly of violence, many of them civilian police who now routinely use weapons of war - a practice the mainstream media normalizes by showing police using them in TV shows and movies. These elites also provide a great deal of support for gun control groups.

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