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IPFS News Link • Gun Rights

Doug Casey on Arming Teachers

• Lew Rockwell: Doug Casey on Arming Teachers

Justin's note: On February 14, 17 people lost their lives in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Sadly, tragedies like this routinely happen in the United States. Every time they do, Americans demand radical reforms. And for once, the government's delivering.

President Trump has already said that he wants to ban the sale of bump stocks. And he thinks teachers and coaches should carry firearms in schools.

That's a controversial suggestion. Some people think Trump's a lunatic for saying this. Other people think it's a brilliant idea.

But I couldn't help but wonder what Doug Casey thinks. So, I called and asked him myself…

Justin: Doug, what do you think of Trump's latest suggestion?

Doug: It's an OK temporary solution. First of all, everybody has a right to be armed. Historically, a major difference between a slave and a free man was that a free man could be armed. The slave couldn't. The right to be armed is primarily a moral issue, not a legal issue. It's a matter of principle. Which means it's not open to compromise.

But there's also a practical aspect to this. If you can't arm yourself, you're at the mercy of anyone who is. I believe the people who want to confiscate—i.e., steal—or restrict weapons are actually both dangerous and stupid. Why stupid? Let's define the word. Being stupid doesn't necessarily mean having a low IQ. Anti-gun nuts sometimes have high IQs—but IQ is surprisingly irrelevant in daily life.

A better definition of stupidity is "an inability to see only the immediate and direct consequences of actions, not the indirect and delayed consequences." Among those, being unarmed is putting oneself at the mercy of a stronger miscreant. An even better definition of stupidity is "an unwitting tendency towards self-destruction." If an anti-gun nut suffers a home invasion, perhaps then he'll realize how stupid it is.

Anyway, it's not just a question of guns. If bad guys aren't using guns, they'll use explosives, or vehicles, or poisons, or edged weapons just as effectively. The guy who committed this latest shooting could probably have done just as much damage with a machete.

That's because it's harder to disarm somebody with an edged weapon than it is a gun. Yeah, it's true that you don't want to bring a knife to a gun fight. But edged weapons are just as devastating as guns in close quarters, which is where these things usually happen.

Justin: So you don't blame guns?

Doug: No, I don't. It's ridiculous to demonize guns. Any weapon can kill lots of people.

The Rwandans proved that you can kill almost a million people in a matter of months just using machetes. Think about that…

The problem is that society has become so degraded that the average man feels he doesn't even have a right to defend himself. They're like sheep, expecting some shepherd to keep them safe. It's magical thinking. They think that the government—which is by far the most dangerous and destructive force in society—will protect them from anything and everything. Furthermore, the elite think they know what's best for everybody.

So, teachers should, of course, be able to carry guns in school. And they shouldn't need permission to do so. But this leads us to an even more basic question: Why are almost all schools run by the State? If schooling was 100% private, each one could find its own solution to this, and any other possible threats. The whole system should be flushed…

Justin: But Doug, what about AR-15s and other military-grade weapons? Should the average person have that much firepower at their disposal?