In a society where everyone can do anything, no 1 can do anything. That is why access to weapons should not be so much prohibited as regulated – naturally and in accordance with social hierarchy.
Is weapon possession a privilege or a threat? Or is it a class thing? The public debate is dominated by emotions – questions about security, about Tadeusz, who shot his family, about availability, permissions, checks. But the basic question is different: Who should actually have the right to a gun?
The answer – although unpopular – is obvious. One who can take responsibility. The elite, then. Contrary to folk mythology, equality is not a virtue. It's just an order mechanism. The virtue is responsibility, discipline, the ability to reflect and the ability to quit the usage of force despite having it. These qualities are not measured by a intellectual test, but by status. And, yes, wealth.
Don't kill guns. Poor.
Guns are just objects. Tool – like a kitchen knife, like a laptop, like a credit card. It can service as violence, it can service as defense, it can simply be a collectible artifact. Punishing alone fact of possession weapon is like punishing for having a key to individual else's flat – just due to the fact that could be usage it any time.
In a civilized state, law does not punish for intent or opportunity. He's punishing for his actions.
The fact that individual has a Glock or even a device weapon is not a problem. The problem is erstwhile a weapon hits the incorrect hands. In the hands of people who have nothing to lose, like Jacek JaworekOr a fewer days ago Tadeusz Duda. In the hands of those for whom force is not the last last resort, but the impulse. By chance. A reaction.
Therefore Let's not ban possession. Let's cut them down economically. Make certain the guns cost adequate to gain it. Or inherit it. Let it become what it has been for centuries-- symbolic object of the ownership class. A prestigious object, not an impulsive object.
Economics as a Moral Filter
Elites aren't perfect. But they're predictable. Their force – if any – is political, not personal. Calculated, not impulsive. Rich people, unchangeable people, inmates – do not shoot the neighbour due to the fact that the children were besides loud. They can't break their wife with a butt due to the fact that it's besides salty soup. They know they have something to lose.
You can't put it in a statutory rule. But it can be obtained with a simple tool: price. Guns should cost money. Like a luxury watch. Like a yacht. Like a stake in an investment fund. Let's not ban – filter.
Let us reconstruct social hierarchy where it truly matters. In access to force. The state cannot let everyone to have the same possible of violence, since not everyone has the same ability not to usage it.
Freedom Is Not For All
Liberal societies are obsessed with equality. But freedom—the real one—is not equal. It is the privilege of those who know how to lift it. Just like we don't give a Ferrari to drive a 16-year-old, so we shouldn't let anyone have a weapon just due to the fact that I want to. Guns are not a whim. It's not a fanbabie. This is not the “right of man”. It is an work of self-control and competence.
If anyone wants a gun, buy it. But let him buy it the way you buy membership in a closed club. With an alert, with rules, with consequences. due to the fact that that's the point: Not in prohibitions, but in selection. Not in equality, but in hierarchy.
Let's not be afraid of freedom. Let us fear inexpensive weapons.
