Thomas Hobbes and the Twisted Genius of Open Carry
Open Carry is not really about guns, and it’s not really about the Second Amendment: it’s about systematically undermining Americans’ confidence in governance while simultaneously boosting the sales of the gun industry.
In other words, it’s a bizarre combination of ideological anti-government fetishism — fulfilling the Grover Norquist dream of drowning government in a bathtub — and crony capitalism in the name of the firearms industry. Just look at how National Rifle Association hysteria has pumped up gun sales since Obama took office:
Smith and Wesson stock performance (Morningstar) Sturm Ruger & Co. stock performance (Morningstar)
Ignore the guys with the guns. Advocates of sane, responsible gun laws get distracted by the sight of overweight, cognitively challenged wingnuts parading around the neighborhood with unloaded firearms slung across their backs in the most ludicrously non-tactical way possible — and rightfully so. Indeed, by their own admission, that’s what they want — to “shake up” the public.
The fact is, these Open Carry types are really just dupes, pawns trying to live out hero fantasies peddled by hucksters like Wayne LaPierre: You can be a Real American Hero! As a Good Guy With A Gun, you can Stop An Evildoer In The Nick Of Time!
What gun shills won’t admit is that tactical shooting — the kind you’d do when foiling a crime — is not at all like standing on a range, measuring your breathing, taking careful aim, and popping a few rounds through a paper target. Among other things, the paper target doesn’t shoot back.
All the available data, including mandatory annual reports on officer-involved shootings by major metropolitan police departments, shows that police officers — men and women who carry firearms as part of their daily duties and who are required to demonstrate proficiency with them once, sometimes twice, every year — usually miss what they’re shooting at in tactical situations. In New York, Los Angeles, and Miami-Dade, the hit rate is about 30%. In Memphis, it’s as low as 25%.
So if trained professionals miss their targets seven out of ten times in the noise, confusion, and hysteria of a street shooting, the probability that a “Good Guy With A Gun” would do anything other than increase the mayhem and body count is zero — especially when you consider the way these characters tote around assault rifles with high-capacity magazines.
But the point isn’t that a gun-fantasist will stop a crime. He won’t.
The point is to make Americans doubt that the police — the most visible institution of the state — can protect them. The point is to make Americans doubt the very essence of government, which is to provide security. It’s not a coincidence that the Declaration of Independence says that “Governments are instituted among men” to “secure these rights.”
That’s why the Open Carry fanatics blather on about their “right” to “self-defense” and their need to defend themselves against “tyranny.” That’s why state legislatures in thrall to ALEC continue to push an ever-more expansive interpretation of the so-called “Castle Doctrine,” such that “stand your ground” increasingly encompasses public spaces well outside one’s home or property — the very spaces in which we traditionally turn to government for protection.
Open Carry is a stalking horse for a kind of DIY Governance whose goal is to systematically erode and ultimately destroy public trust in government — to return America to what the conservative movement imagines is its “pure,” pre-federal government state of nature.
When the Founders looked for inspiration for the Declaration of Independence, they found it in the works of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and the Baron de Montesquieu — the so-called “Social Contract” theorists. These men argued that humans existed in a State of Nature where every man was his own judge and jury and where, therefore, little good was ever accomplished. It was stable government — or, as they called it, “Commonwealth” — that provided the basis for economic, political, or social progress.
What the gun nuts and Second Amendment absolutists are determined to do, in alliance with the Tenth Amendment fetishists, is to fundamentally undermine America’s social contract and the government upon which it depends — devolution to Hobbes’ description of life without government, a “war of all against all:”
…a time or war where every man is enemy to every man…wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Which is just the way the Gun Lobby likes it. Because nothing pumps up gun sales like continual fear and danger of violent death.
Click here for reuse options!Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Russ Burgos
Interested in foreign affairs, global conflict, and political narratives and discourses
32 responses to Thomas Hobbes and the Twisted Genius of Open Carry
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Roctuna July 30th, 2014 at 08:42
One of the most interesting posts I’ve ever seen here!
Roctuna July 30th, 2014 at 08:42
One of the most interesting posts I’ve ever seen here!
William July 30th, 2014 at 09:33
The best way to promote panic buying, is to propagate the myth that something is soon going to be illegal to purchase. The arms industry is certainly reaping the benefits of this phenomenon.
Open carry enthusiast live under the delusion that the second amendment is written in stone and unalterable. They completely ignore the fact that Americans, can and will amend the Constitution whenever they want to. The consequences of bizarre open carry behavior will unfortunately hurt the responsible gun owner.
It’s like this. If you’re trying to cultivate a relationship you can approach your potential mate with care, courtesy, and the knowledge that the success of the relationship will depend on how comfortable and secure the other person is with you
OR….
You can take your dick out and start waving it around.
Open carry freaks have chosen the latter.
John David Peer July 30th, 2014 at 22:33
What “myth” is being propagated?? Democrats in the House, lead by Dianne “I’ve already GOT my gun!” Feinstein continue to attempt to revisit the failed AWB, which VERY MUCH DOES make many popular firearms and their accessories “illegal to purchase”.
Of course, the smart money says Obama KNEW it didn’t have a snowball’s chance of passing, and so he paid it lip service, that’s it.
You got played.
William July 31st, 2014 at 00:59
Feinstein continue to attempt to revisit the failed AWB, which VERY MUCH DOES make many popular firearms and their accessories “illegal to purchase”.
when (exactly) was that bill introduced/reintroduced by Feinstein?
Prof B in LA August 2nd, 2014 at 14:47
The popularity of a firearm does not justify its widespread commercial availability. Booze is really popular, yet we heavily regulate its manufacture and sale. Cigarettes are popular, yet we heavily regulate their manufacture and sale. Automobiles are very, very popular, yet we heavily regulate their manufacture, sale, and we heavily regulate their ownership, to include mandatory and recurrent registration and mandatory and recurrent licensing.
R.J. Carter August 2nd, 2014 at 14:53
“Cigarettes are popular, yet we heavily regulate their manufacture and sale. ”
Oh hells, yeah. We’ve been known to choke a man to death for selling cigarettes illegally.
William July 30th, 2014 at 09:33
The best way to promote panic buying, is to propagate the myth that something is soon going to be illegal to purchase. The arms industry is certainly reaping the benefits of this phenomenon.
Open carry enthusiast live under the delusion that the second amendment is written in stone and unalterable. They completely ignore the fact that Americans, can and will amend the Constitution whenever they want to. The consequences of bizarre open carry behavior will unfortunately hurt the responsible gun owner.
It’s like this. If you’re trying to cultivate a relationship you can approach your potential mate with care, courtesy, and the knowledge that the success of the relationship will depend on how comfortable and secure the other person is with you
OR….
You can take your dick out and start waving it around.
Open carry freaks have chosen the latter.
John David Peer July 30th, 2014 at 22:33
What “myth” is being propagated?? Democrats in the House, lead by Dianne “I’ve already GOT my gun!” Feinstein continue to attempt to revisit the failed AWB, which VERY MUCH DOES make many popular firearms and their accessories “illegal to purchase”.
Of course, the smart money says Obama KNEW it didn’t have a snowball’s chance of passing, and so he paid it lip service, that’s it.
You got played.
William July 31st, 2014 at 00:59
Feinstein continue to attempt to revisit the failed AWB, which VERY MUCH DOES make many popular firearms and their accessories “illegal to purchase”.
when (exactly) was that bill introduced/reintroduced by Feinstein?
Prof B in LA August 2nd, 2014 at 14:47
The popularity of a firearm does not justify its widespread commercial availability. Booze is really popular, yet we heavily regulate its manufacture and sale. Cigarettes are popular, yet we heavily regulate their manufacture and sale. Automobiles are very, very popular, yet we heavily regulate their manufacture, sale, and we heavily regulate their ownership, to include mandatory and recurrent registration and mandatory and recurrent licensing.
R.J. Carter August 2nd, 2014 at 14:53
“Cigarettes are popular, yet we heavily regulate their manufacture and sale. ”
Oh hells, yeah. We’ve been known to choke a man to death for selling cigarettes illegally.
R.J. Carter July 30th, 2014 at 10:32
Firstly, I obviously missed the boat not investing in Smith & Wesson. I usually manage to capitalize on events like that. So I’m feeling rather low on that front.
I do find it interesting, though, that this (well-written and well thought out) article urges us to look to government for protection, immediately after pointing out what statistically poor shots the police are.
R.J. Carter July 30th, 2014 at 10:56
Actually, scratch Smith & Wesson. If one had invested in SWHC prior to Obama’s election, they would still be holding a loss as the stock still hasn’t risen to it’s 2007 high point, which dropped precipitously after the election. Sturm Ruger began paying dividends again in 2009, after a 3-year hiatus of the payments, and that tends to make a stock more attractive, driving up the price. And dividends are, of course, based on profitability in sales.
Prof B in LA July 30th, 2014 at 12:37
S&W’s stock took a hit for several reasons: 1) ironically enough, it was boycotted by the National Rifle Association because it accepted gun safety measures to settle state-based lawsuits, 2) because of revelations that the chairman was a convicted felon, having spent 15 years in prison for armed robbery, and was being investigated by the federal government into accounting sleight-of-hand, and 3) they were the only major manufacturer that didn’t offer a plastic gun.
Once the new owner, Michael Golden, came on board, S&W got a $20 million contract to supply guns to the Afghan security forces, marketed a plastic gun (the M&P 50), and got a 5-year contract to supply handguns to the entire Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Prof B in LA July 30th, 2014 at 12:30
The comparatively poor shooting of the police is better than the best shooting of the gun fetishists — and in spite of that, the Republic hasn’t collapsed. Perhaps that’s as good as it needs to be.
R.J. Carter July 30th, 2014 at 10:32
Firstly, I obviously missed the boat not investing in Smith & Wesson. I usually manage to capitalize on events like that. So I’m feeling rather low on that front.
I do find it interesting, though, that this (well-written and well thought out) article urges us to look to government for protection, immediately after pointing out what statistically poor shots the police are.
R.J. Carter July 30th, 2014 at 10:56
Actually, scratch Smith & Wesson. If one had invested in SWHC prior to Obama’s election, they would still be holding a loss as the stock still hasn’t risen to it’s 2007 high point, which dropped precipitously after the election. Sturm Ruger began paying dividends again in 2009, after a 3-year hiatus of the payments, and that tends to make a stock more attractive, driving up the price. And dividends are, of course, based on profitability in sales.
Prof B in LA July 30th, 2014 at 12:37
S&W’s stock took a hit for several reasons: 1) ironically enough, it was boycotted by the National Rifle Association because it accepted gun safety measures to settle state-based lawsuits, 2) because of revelations that the chairman was a convicted felon, having spent 15 years in prison for armed robbery, and was being investigated by the federal government into accounting sleight-of-hand, and 3) they were the only major manufacturer that didn’t offer a plastic gun.
Once the new owner, Michael Golden, came on board, S&W got a $20 million contract to supply guns to the Afghan security forces, marketed a plastic gun (the M&P 50), and got a 5-year contract to supply handguns to the entire Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Prof B in LA July 30th, 2014 at 12:30
The comparatively poor shooting of the police is better than the best shooting of the gun fetishists — and in spite of that, the Republic hasn’t collapsed. Perhaps that’s as good as it needs to be.
fratdawgg23 July 30th, 2014 at 10:37
Very insightful post.
I would submit that Corporate Tyranny – wrapped in a flag and carrying a briefcase – knocked on America’s front door decades ago. The well-armed patriots opened the door wide and said, “Welcome! Please come in!”
tiredoftea July 30th, 2014 at 12:55
That was after they sent in their long range scouts, we call them lobbyists today, with bags and bags of money to prepare the ground for their triumph.
JayGoldenBeach July 30th, 2014 at 10:37
Very insightful post.
I would submit that Corporate Tyranny – wrapped in a flag and carrying a briefcase – knocked on America’s front door decades ago. The well-armed patriots opened the door wide and said, “Welcome! Please come in!”
tiredoftea July 30th, 2014 at 12:55
That was after they sent in their long range scouts, we call them lobbyists today, with bags and bags of money to prepare the ground for their triumph.
Cameron Wesley Roberts July 30th, 2014 at 17:45
Did you guys miss the doc that stopped the mass murder by bringing his ccw into the gun free zone of the hospital?
Prof B in LA August 2nd, 2014 at 14:45
This is known as “extrapolating beyond the dataset.” It’s about as scientific as I knew this guy who knew this guy who heard from this other guy about this thing some guy did. The net damage to decent people and decent society caused by a bunch of half-wit yahoos galumphing about the country compensating for their tiny manhood with large caliber firearms is not mitigated by one incident where something “might” have happened.
Cameron Wesley Roberts July 30th, 2014 at 17:45
Did you guys miss the doc that stopped the mass murder by bringing his ccw into the gun free zone of the hospital?
Prof B in LA August 2nd, 2014 at 14:45
This is known as “extrapolating beyond the dataset.” It’s about as scientific as I knew this guy who knew this guy who heard from this other guy about this thing some guy did. The net damage to decent people and decent society caused by a bunch of half-wit yahoos galumphing about the country compensating for their tiny manhood with large caliber firearms is not mitigated by one incident where something “might” have happened.
John David Peer July 30th, 2014 at 22:29
“”In New York, Los Angeles, and Miami-Dade, the hit rate is about 30%. In Memphis, it’s as low as 25%.””
Exactly. And so, now that we agree that even well-trained professionals miss a lot during a defensive firefight, suddenly 7-round mag limits are exposed as the absurdity they are for home defence.
I love it when someone inadvertently makes a point against prohibitions, it’s a win-win for the truth.
Prof B in LA August 2nd, 2014 at 14:44
So your point is…what, exactly? That we should have some unprofessional, make-believe, I’m-a-real-he-man-just-like-Rambo wannabe hero putting more lead downrange? That’s a sound policy.
John David Peer July 30th, 2014 at 22:29
“”In New York, Los Angeles, and Miami-Dade, the hit rate is about 30%. In Memphis, it’s as low as 25%.””
Exactly. And so, now that we agree that even well-trained professionals miss a lot during a defensive firefight, suddenly 7-round mag limits are exposed as the absurdity they are for home defence.
I love it when someone inadvertently makes a point against prohibitions, it’s a win-win for the truth.
Prof B in LA August 2nd, 2014 at 14:44
So your point is…what, exactly? That we should have some unprofessional, make-believe, I’m-a-real-he-man-just-like-Rambo wannabe hero putting more lead downrange? That’s a sound policy.