Lao Tsu states in The Tao Te Ching that “weapons are instruments of fear, all creatures hate them. The Sage uses them only when there is no other choice.” Countries with a large cache of death-imparting intelligence and hardware have this choice. A lot of pain and suffering will be averted worldwide if all arms and resources get diverted into life-cherishing, peaceful interests. 

Until then, to keep safe from a government unresponsive to the people and that our Constitution’s creators urged us to be wary of, every sane adult should be able to own and carry. How else is the balance of power that needs to exist between cops, the military and regular civilians possible? With every new presidency, Republican or Democrat, more and more of our resources feed wars and killing.

This change of direction, for obvious reasons, needs to be a simultaneous worldwide effort and transformation. The U.S., which has five times the weaponry of the next runner-up, China, should lead in this effort. Once all law enforcement, military and civilian weapons in the world get recycled, our planet will brim with joy.

David Ivan Piccioni

Eugene