I’m posting this with the express permission of the author. Everything below the dotted line is him.
He’s also the guy dressed as a pirate in those videos. Here’s a link to his YT channel.
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One of the more common question we see here, as a group, is something along the lines of, “What are you so afraid of, that you have to carry/own a firearm?”
This made me think of an old joke, recently, and, as so often is the case, I shamelessly stole and re-wrote that joke for my own amusement, and my piratical alter-ego made some comments on it (both of these videos have been seen before, but…):
For those of you can’t easily view video, here’s a rough transcript:
Video of a pirate (quite a dashing and handsome fellow, in fact), holding and firing flintlock pistols:
A mate of mine went into the pub one night (Finnish lad, too many vowels in his name). He was carrying three or four pistols, a cutlass, a couple of large knives, and a belaying pin.
Well, the barman asked him, “What are you so afraid of, carrying all that hardware?”
Me mate says, “I ain’t afraid of a bloody thing.”
Text on screen:
And the moral of this story is…
Never confuse preparedness with fear.Back to the pirate, this time holding and firing a blunderbuss:
I find it interesting how so many people what want others to give up their arms, ain’t willing to give up their own.
So, my own particular brand of humour* aside, just what is it I’m getting at here…?
What it really comes down to is that, for many of us, owning and/or carrying a firearm is simply no different than owning fire-extinguishers, wearing a seatbelt, or getting inoculations. Statistically speaking, it’s not particularly likely that any particular person may ever have the need to defend themselves from violent criminal activity — but the chance does exist — just like the chances that I may have a house fire, have an automobile accident, or be exposed to a contagious disease.
Now, no one is claiming that owning and/or carrying a gun guarantees that we will be able to successfully defend ourselves from attackers, any more than owning a fire extinguisher will guarantee that we can put out a fire before it gets out of control, or that seatbelts will guarantee that we will survive an automobile accident, or that inoculations will guarantee that we won’t get sick.
It does, however, give one more option that would not otherwise exist.
So, if you ever find yourself asking the question, perhaps you should actually listen to the answer, rather than ignoring that answer in favor of the response you wanted to get.
Like the old saying, “it’s better to have it and not need it than it is to need it and not have it.”
Which, brings us to…
Transcript:
That same dashing pirate:
It seems to me that if you let someone come along and take away your means of self-defense, then, before too awful long, they’ll come along to take away something else.
Text:
And the moral of this story is…
It’s better to have it and not need it…
Than to need it and not have it.And, the pirate once more:
I suspect that anyone who doesn’t care about self-defense has probably never been in need of it.
And, if nothing else, I do hope this shows that we can find a bit of humour* in our own political stances.
*The superfluous u here is intentional — an archaic spelling for a guy dressed in archaic clothing. No reference to the modern, British superfluous u is intended.