My friend Curt gave me a pair of spurs several years ago. I didn’t have a horse at the time, but he wanted to give them to me anyway. Now I know what most people are thinking, ‘that spurs are a cruel and abusive device to use on a horse just to get him to do what you want’. Most people don’t understand anything about spurs, or horses for that matter.
Most people don’t understand anything about self-protection either. They think that banning handguns will reduce murder, robbery, home invasion, and other violent crimes. They think that is how we can protect ourselves. However, statistics prove exactly the opposite, by a huge margin. In fact, honest studies have shown very clearly that in the states where it has become legal for citizens to carry a handgun violent crime statistics have fallen so dramatically that the media, politicians, and fascist lawmakers, who are more interested in promoting their own ideology than in allowing people to protect themselves, have scrambled overtime to see that the facts are kept hidden from the American public. It is dishonesty at its very worst. Just because a politician says something, or has Hollywood trumpet it for him, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s anywhere even close to being true. However, because those lies are force-fed to us by the media, and other spineless ideological pressure groups, and repeated over and over, we tend to believe them. We make presumptions about things, they become assumptions, and then we adopt them as truth, even though our reasoning might be fallacious and incomplete. Fact is, we tend to mold our ideologies to suit our comfort level, our bias, or our ignorance, whichever is in greater need of reinforcement, regardless of the merit of such conclusions. Many of us cannot deal with an unmitigated reality. We prefer the comfort of our warm socio/adolescent blankets.
After Curt gave me those spurs he wrote a letter to me, part of which said, “Spurs are a sign of a cowboys strength and respect. His horse knows he can count on his rider to lead him through any situation, or rough terrain, as the trail demands. He knows, if need be, that the steel and brass of the spurs gently in his side are a sign of strength, not abuse, from his friend. His cowboy is only helping him succeed in the challenge.”
He went on to say, “There are not many today who are able to wear, or even own, a pair of spurs. And there is, at times, undoubtedly, no better sound.” “Denes”, he said, “You have the strength and respect to wear them.”
Now I don’t know about possessing those attributes to that degree, but I do know that I continually aspire to the challenge, to that position of self-reliance, the nobility of confidence, if you will. And my spurs are a constant reminder of the responsibility I have to wield strength as a positive provocation, rather than as a weapon.
The same would hold true of gun ownership. And as with spurs, a gun can help prevent some pretty tragic circumstances. It is incumbent upon a civilized society to put, and keep, the weapons in the hands of non-criminals, those who will wield them wisely, responsibly, and with reasonable forethought. Or swiftly, depending on the necessity of a given situation. The bad guys are counting on us being unarmed, and weakened by a steady diet of political correctness. That would actually make us VICTIMS, rather than urban sophisticates, as we’d like to think of ourselves. But victims are exactly what we are becoming.
Some people have NPR on their emergency speed dial. It is where they are taught how to think, or feel about life. It is the water they bathe in, to cleanse their thinking, to free their minds from the frightening grip of logic. I suppose they could call the hotline to find out how to defend themselves, and their families, if, and when, they’re being threatened. Good luck with that.
Or they could call my friend Curt.
In the absence of those options they could allow that beautiful combination of steel and brass to strengthen their position.
If you know what I mean.
