Like it or not, guns are a necessary evil for maintaining a free and democratic society in which we live. However, when the gun falls in the hands of some problem people, it becomes a weapon to kill. That is the difficult challenge we have to face in an imperfect world in which we live. Of course, some people today tend to think that gun rights are for hunting, recreation and self-defense. Perhaps, but that was the last thing in the framers’ minds when they drafted the Bill of Rights.
Chris Hsu
January 28, 2016
Letters: Gun rights are essential to the freedoms we enjoy in America
[I don’t get the “necessary evil” part but Hsu does reasonably well in the rest of his letter.—Joe]
My first thought, too: Why “evil”? Why not just “necessary”?
“Like it or not, guns are necessary TOOLS for maintaining a free and democratic society”…
There, I fixed it. Tools aren’t good or evil, they’re just things used by people.
People now? Yeah, there are some seriously EVIL people running around our little corner of the universe.
I can kinda see where he’s coming from. A gun in the hands of a criminal can be used to great evil, indeed.
Doesn’t change the points Rodger and Archer have made above. Nor does it eliminate the necessity of having the means to defend yourself. It might be a necessary evil, but the emphasis is on ‘necessary’.
A quote I’m fond of repeating: ‘We do not distrust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we distrust each other.’
If you click on my name it will take you to an essay about the true nature of the 2nd Amendment. I think you’ll like it.
I think this is an individual instantiation of the “Just War” theory. Essentially, war is evil, but a just war is a necessary evil. Extend that to the individuals and their tools, and there you have it.
I’m not that convinced by the original theory so, even though I think I understand the man’s point, I’m not that sold on it. YMMV as the saying goes.