A FEW RAMBLING THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM by M. L. McPherson

Why does freedom exist for us now? As we look back along the distant tendrils of recorded history, we note the conspicuous absence of one thing.... In those thousands of years and throughout those hundreds of “civilizations,” we see mirrored practically every aspect of modern society, good and bad alike. We see war, famine, oppression, strife, and grief. We see advances and setbacks. We see literary, engineering, artistic, and scientific marvels. We see the continuing inevitable overall advancement of knowledge.

What we do not see is the existence of personal freedom for the masses. In fact, throughout recorded history and throughout the world, until about three hundred years ago that little feature of human existence was never seen anywhere.

Now, one could argue that personal freedom is highly overrated but that debate is not my purpose here. Technically, that point is moot. For the purposes of this treatise, I will hold that nothing could be more precious. Those who do not agree have a different battle to fight.

What was that magic potion that changed the face of history, so that, sometime around three hundred years ago, we began to see individuals who were able to claim their right to personal freedom? The answer would astound many modern scholars, if only they would bother to study history in the cold light of facts. That magic potion was in the form of cold hard steel. In that era, for the first time in “civilized” history, the average individual could afford a means of defeating the armor, and therefore the hired and trained mercenaries, of the wealthy few. How so, you might ask? The answer: The Gun!

At that time, the advent of the steam-powered, external combustion engine for the first time ever provided an effective means of ridding mines of water. That little detail was crucial to the nascent industrial revolution. With that revolution, the price of guns and ammunition components plummeted.

As a result, for the first time, the average citizen had a chance of affording a weapon that was capable of defeating armor. Of course, then as now, the ruling elite fought tooth and nail to try to prevent the average subject from owning such a weapon – in that era, the reasons for that legalistic oppression were somewhat more obvious to the average person.

It is a fact that, without the affordable gun, freedom for the masses would never have happened. It is equally a fact that as soon as the masses lose that means of preserving their God-given rights, freedom will perish, as has repeatedly been proven throughout this modern world’s brief history.

Those who gnash their teeth in response to all the supposed carnage brought about by the “evil gun” continue to ignore all the vastly more damaging facets of a free society. But I shall not argue that point, as I find it an exercise in banality. The point I will argue is the undeniable fact that we have a choice: We can choose to live in freedom and accept that such liberty must needs be include a certain admixture of evil and bad; else, we can choose to live in a police state, for there is no enduring in-between condition. My standard statement is thus: "There is a price to pay for freedom. Society is either willing to pay that price or it is destined to suffer under the inevitable consequences… a Police State."

This article reprinted from the SHOOTISTS' NEWSLETTER Holiday Issue - 2003