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In the wake of the 2018 mid-term elections, so-called “gun control” is back in the news. Even though the murder rate in the United States is declining and at a 33-year low, the mass media’s much-heralded “threat of gun violence” has politicians in a frenzy much like those seen in 1968 and 1994. Gun control laws and decrees should be called out for what they really are: Systematic Civilian Disarmament. In Western nations, most such legislation usually starts small, progressing from registration to wholesale confiscation. First one category of weapons is banned, and then another. Gradually, these draconian laws can ramp up to the point where most citizens can’t even possess air rifles and crossbows. To understand the origins of these laws, we need to examine both some psychology and some history.

Inherent Compulsions

There is a distinct psychology of humans who gain positions of power. They almost immediately develop a “we/they” outlook on life that can eventually develop into narcissism and paranoia. This is most pronounced in dictators, but even petty bureaucrats display the same sinful tendencies:

1. The desire to consolidate and accumulate more power.  (In its extreme, totalitarianism and megalomania.)
2. Fear and dislike of competitors to their power.
3. A tendency toward corruption and nepotism. (Typically, as a means to consolidate power in an inner circle.)
4. Belief that laws only apply to “little people.”
5. A compulsion toward a monopoly of force, that necessitates arming the “we” whilst disarming the “they.”

With that sadly almost universal psychological makeup in mind, let’s move on to some historical examples of governors and governments that have felt compelled to disarm those they rule. They leave arms only in the hands of those that they trust. (These trusted folks are usually called “comrades” (cronies), “bodyguards”, “trained police”, “military professionals”, and “loyal cadres.”)

Many people mistakenly believe that systematic civilian disarmament was an invention of the 20th Century. Here in America, gun restrictions actually got a very early start. The first General Assembly of Virginia met in Jamestown in 1619. There, the settlers enacted more than 30  laws to govern the fledgling colony. One of these laws was a monopoly of force provision that included this wording : “…[t]hat no man do sell or give any Indians any piece, shot, or powder, or any other arms offensive or defensive, upon pain of being held a traitor to the colony and of being hanged as soon as the fact is proved…”  Yes, they had the death penalty for selling a firearm or ammunition to an Indian!

Gun laws were not systematic, widespread, and applicable to the general citizenry until after the Civil War. It was in the late 1860s that such laws got their start at the  state level. In this Reconstruction period in the former Confederate States, state governments sought to keep freed slaves from asserting their rights. These were the first states to systematically ban carrying concealed knives or handguns. Not surprisingly, those inherently racist laws were only selectively enforced, based on skin tone.

Continue reading“A Compulsion to Disarm: The History of Grabby Governments Since 1026 BC”