Les Jones

Guns > Unfair Fights are the Way to Go

Clayton Cramer quotes this email from Professor John J. Donohue III, who is anti-gun:

You can always grab a baseball bat or use your fists to defend yourself and the vast majority of the time that Lott or Kleck thinks a gun was used defensively, the bat or fists would have done just fine. I don't know what the net effect of guns is, but neither do you.

Cramer notes the obvious exceptions to "always." Maybe you're outnumbered, maybe the criminal is carrying a concealed weapon, or maybe they're simply physically stronger than you are. There's a reason guns are considered the great equalizers.

Beyond that, though, is a simpler argument. Why shouldn't a respectable citizen have every advantage against a criminal? Reading between the lines of some of the anti-gun arguments, there seems to be a naive belief in the concept of a fair fight. If I'm being attacked, the last thing I want is a fair fight. I want a fight that's completely unfair, in my favor.