Want A Safe Independent Scotland? Legalize Guns And Slash The Military

One of the major debates we see during the Scottish independence referendum campaign is talk about what will happen to the military. This is an important question and many in Scotland (and other places) will disagree with my conclusion. The only way for an independent Scotland to be truly safe is to legalize guns and radically cut the military.

In my recent article “ Scottish Independence – A Critique of the Yes and No Campaign's Propaganda” I brought up the point in the Westminster government's propaganda pamphlet they stated that we would lose Britain's armed forces which “keep us safe at home and abroad”. Perhaps that would be true if there was a radically smaller defensive army but anyone can see that the British armed forces are anything but that. Due to a “do what we're told” attitude to American foreign policy the British armed forces have been drawn into pointless and disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years. Sure, politicians love to pretend that “Our boys are over there keeping us safe.” but this is a lie. These wars are being fought over resources and to feed the already out-of-control military industrial complex.
 

When you violently invade someone's country and kill thousands of people all you do is radicalise the youth of that country. We saw it in Ireland over the years, when something horrific like Bloody Sunday happened many infuriated young men went straight to join the IRA and it is the same in any country. Want to stop actual domestic terrorism? Then don't give recruiters mountains of examples of brutality they can show to impressionable young people. I believe Ron Paul put it best when talking about this same issue in the US when he said “They're over here because we're over there.”
 

So what about an independent Scotland? Well a truly defensive army would be desirable, but if the SNP are as committed to peace as they say then we would get out of NATO for a start. NATO was supposed to be an organization to protect us from the Soviet Union – something that now doesn't even exist! Sure Russia is still demonised in the mainstream media but in reality poses no threat unless poked way too much (they're trying!).
 

So how does legalizing guns fit into this confused rambling? Well, there are numbers to support crime going down in states in the US where carrying concealed guns is legal but you can look at the statistics for yourself, personally I know statistics as these are open to wide interpretations so I'm just going to come from the pure reason argument. If you know that someone may be armed how much less likely are you to rob them? Or, if you rob someone and you know that a passer by may have a gun and shoot you, again how likely are you to rob them? Much less so than currently.

An acquaintance of mine who was from Texas said to me one night in the pub “In Texas people are much nicer to each other cause you never know who's carryin'” If people want to rob or murder you they'll do it anyway, you'll get stabbed or battered with a golf club so why shouldn't you be able to defend yourself with a firearm? What if your house is being broken into? How can you effectively protect yourself and your family? As the old saying goes “When seconds count the police are minutes away.”
 

The fact of the matter is that criminals can buy guns in this country illegally anyway. If I were to give you the short answer to why guns are illegal in this country I would first put on my tinfoil Jimmy hat and then tell you that they're illegal because (as usual) the government wants to enjoy a monopoly of violence. Put yourself in the shoes of the ruling elite for a moment. Would you want an armed population that could overthrow you? Hell no you wouldn't, why do you think they're trying their best to disarm the US population? And this point funnily enough could save us from invasion.
 

I would make the case that a stateless Scotland with no army whatsoever could be perfectly safe, but that is beyond the scope of this article. So I will say this, if we had a small army (for defence purposes only) and guns were legal then any country would have to bomb us into another dimension to take over Scotland. Think about it, if we didn't start wars with other countries over resources and feeding the military industrial complex monster then we would have less enemies who would want to do us harm. Now, add to that the fact that any would-be invaders or terrorists would know that most people own guns, would march an army into a foreign neighbourhood where almost everyone could shoot you? You would be making a mistake if you did.
 

So let's attempt to tie this together. I would be fine with a completely independent Scotland having a small defence-only army. The Swiss model is very interesting in this respect, every male is trained and given a gun and becomes part of the Swiss militia. This has allowed them to stay neutral in major wars and come out just fine. Now, it must be pointed out that most ordinary men don't have ammunition for their guns in their home (as of 2007) as many gun right activists miss this fact when referencing Switzerland. But it is still a fascinating look at how an armed forces could be.

What I am getting at is that if Scotland became independent and then we fell pray to the military industrial complex we would not get anywhere. We would continue to see fine young men dying in foreign war zones for the enrichment of a privileged few and that is wrong. We could be much safer with a (possibly voluntary) defence-only army that would not be dragged into unnecessary wars. I also don't feel that legalizing guns would destroy our social fabric and lead to chaos. If potential gun-owners had to undergo background checks and mandatory training then we could have guns not concentrated in the hands of power only and this would mean that if we the people were aggressed against (by government or foreign invasion) then we could defend ourselves more effectively.

 

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