What do weapons mean to you?

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I truly believe that without personal weapons, we would still need some sort of formal heirarcy in society and the freedoms and unbounded productivity we enjoy in the USA would never have happened.

Without personal weapons, society needs some sort of knights, dukes, lords and kings or levels of party bureaucrats - call them what you will - to organize masses of brute force.

There may be regimes that allow increased personal freedom, but you are always subject to the whims of whatever government takes charge, King Soloman or King John eventually gives way to a Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, etc. Power corrupts and the winners write the history.

And what's the use of being innovative or productive and taking a risk to start a company if the King or the Party can take it away from you?

Successful regimes without personal weapons - like Taiwan, Japan, S. Korea, Europe, etc. have USA policy and muscle to keep their societies "democratic" -- and most countries outside the US looked a lot different 60 years ago.

As Jeff Cooper says, a rifle turns you from a subject to a citizen.
 
Successful regimes without personal weapons - like Taiwan, Japan, S. Korea, Europe, etc. have USA policy and muscle to keep their societies "democratic" -- and most countries outside the US looked a lot different 60 years ago.
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No personal weapons in Europe?
Please don't extrapolate the situation in Great Britain to continental Europe, where the private and legal ownership of guns is quite common.
Or do you mean the three guns in my locker are holographic projections? :confused:
 
I have guns because they remove me from physical coercion. If someone wants to interact with me, they have to deal with me via reason, since I have the means to retaliate any use of force. An armed man cannot be ruled by force. I cannot be strong-armed by anyone, be it idividuals or mobs. Guns free me from my fellow man. Everything else is just a fringe benefit.

It is the State which forces people into compliance far more often than any freelance robber. They do it not by reason, but by threat of force. It is telling that most people fear the armed agents of the State more than they do the occasional mugger or burglar.
 
To me, it means that I will not die a slave. The difference between a slave and free man is the ability to defend himself against the will of others. He may lose the fight, but he will fight as a free man. That is why slaves are forbidden to have weapons.
 
Freedom...plus,for the ones I shoot and hoard, appreciation for workmanship in both metal work and woods that are used.
Dan

Another world, before tupperware and castings!
 
weap·on ( P ) Pronunciation Key (wpn)
n.
1.An instrument of attack or defense in combat, as a gun, missile, or sword.
2.Zoology. A part or organ, such as a claw or stinger, used by an animal in attack or defense.
3. A means used to defend against or defeat another: Logic was her weapon.

This is how webster describes it.

To me its any instrument that is implented for the use of harm to others.
 
No problem ReadyontheRight. Europeans tend to lump your 50 states together, too. ;)

How comes you're a member of ProTell? I'm a member of the German counterpart FWR and plan to become a member of the Austrian IWÖ.
 
Now this is unusual...

Wow! Y'all said a mouthful, guys. Seems I agree with every one of you, one way or another. And for once I have nothing to add. :)
 
They symbolize nothing to me. They are tools designed to throw a projectile. They can be used for recreation, self-defense, and political insurrection. They can also be used to victimize, murder, and oppress others. For that reason, I shy away from saying they symbolize freedom. It would be just as valid to say they symbolize tyranny. Regardless, I own them and I am (relatively) free. I will continue to own them. I use them to promote freedom because there are those who would use them to restrict it.
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Golgo, you make a very good and correct point.

However, I just wanted to state what they mean to ME personally, and was curious what weapons mean to others here.

Again, it would be foolish to say that as a rule, weapons symbolize freedom, because, as you point out, they could just as easily symbolize oppression.
 
In the hands of the trained and talented, or even in the hands of the clumsy yet needy, a tool is more than merely the tool - it is a means to improving the human condition. A carpenter's hammer is more than just a means of pushing metal into wood, it is the means of creating useful items. A camera is more than just a means of putting an image on paper, it is the means of preserving and proving a moment in time. A gun is more than just a means of throwing lead downrange, it is a means of obtaining food or stopping evil. There is a reason fine tools are held in high esteem - and are opposed by evildoers: they are what raise us above the animals, from acting merely on instinct to making rational thought and artistic perception manifestly real.
 
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