Revolutionary

Been thinking and expanding.

Have you been watching all the revolution stuff on the news.  Ukraine.  Venezuela.  The nigh entire Muslim world.

Some have guns, some don't because the country they started in was all gun grabby ahead of time.


What do many of them have in common when things go from mass demonstration to all kinetic and stuff and The Man starts to push back?

Young.  Men.

Young men are the ones that are all violent on the revolutionary side.  Give a 19 year old a bottle, a brickbat, a gun... and give him a beef and no direct authority to focus him and you get bursts of violence.  Good or bad.

Now, think about here in this country.  The Occupy Wall Street type.  Pooping in the streets, and requiring rape-free tents to be set up.  19 year olds with no guiding authority.

There is another movement.  The Tea Party types.  Rather than public pooping, this group of revolutionaries pick up litter.  They aren't, generally, 19 year olds full of beans.  Lots of them are 39 year olds, with jobs and family.

Now think back again.  To 1987 when Conceal Carry became a 'thing.'  Remember the predictions?  Shootouts were supposed to happen.  Slap leather over a disputed parking space.  That didn't happen.  Why was that?

A big reason was the people jumping through the hoops weren't young men, full of beans.  Full of piss and vinegar (ick, that's a horrible bean recipe...)  It was, in the main, those older guys, with jobs and family.  Or at least maturity.  Yes, men.  Lots of women CCW, but it's still mostly men.  And the maturity level or either gender with a CCW preclude that Dodge City atmosphere so expected.

The hotheads that have a shootout over a parking space or over road rage already had a gun on their persons.  Didn't care about no steenkin permit.  So... no bump in violence happened.  The gun on the hip didn't turn law abiding, self-aware, secure in themselves, citizens into violent yahoos looking to exert themselves.

One of the things about the military is you need a lot of young men.  Men.  Young men.  This demo has a preponderance to be all violent and stuff.  It's of value, when directed toward military goals.  Men at the peak of their physical prime and wanting to prove themselves and enjoy the outburst of violence.  Like demonstrators in Ukraine.  Or college students in Venezuela.  The difference?  The Sergeants with them.  Older, mature, men.  People, now, in many cases, not just men.  Sergeants even out the vicissitudes and energy of violent youth.  To discipline and direct.  It's a symbiotic relationship vital to the success of any fighting force, anywhere.

CCW carriers aren't platoons of soldiers.  They are individual 'Sergeants' of either sex.  Because of permit requirement of Shall Issue, the rash and young and immature are filtered out some.  And we now have millions of armed responsible people ready to defend themselves but praying they'll never have to.  Because they are 'Sergeants' of a sort.  Often publicly engaged and thoughtful people.

What do you do with a nation full of millions of these invisible shottists?  Nothing.  It's the way it should be.  But, man, I don't know if it is a good idea to rile them.  To make them feel dubious of the way things are being run by any 'ruling elite.'  It's why I don't think Kiev could happen here.  The elite knows how many guns are out there, and how many gun owners are the mature Sergeant types.  Demonstration by them are polite and clean and orderly and on holidays and weekends because they gotta get to work the next day.  And they are polite for a long long time.  But what happens when you push them over the line?...