Not long ago, I listened to a series of lectures by a very sharp man.  A doctor, who is also a professor, made the claim that realizing “the enemy has an outpost in our heads,” is the foundation for seeking truth.  He pulled the pin on that grenade, tossed it effortlessly into the room, and strolled along his way as if the explosion didn’t matter to him.  Personally, I think he enjoyed having done it.  In fact, I know he did.  We’ve since become friends and dropping truth bombs if you will, gives him joy.  When the truth takes longer to arrive, his joy becomes great.

In my case, his joy was tremendous.  It took me a long time to flesh out what he meant by saying, “the enemy has an outpost in our heads.”  When we use the opposition’s words, accept their flawed precepts, and regurgitate their false narratives as if they were true, they become common understanding.  While they might not actually be correct, they’re assumed as such.  To say the enemy has an outpost within our gray matter is to say we’re no longer questioning or correctly identifying the flaws we’re handed.  And any thoughtful discussion requires truth, whether common ground is reached or not.

If you and I say something silly like, “gun violence,” we’re probably not considering what is true of a thing.  Sure, those two words can be perfectly grammatical in a sentence.  They’re spelled correctly.  But are they true in the sense they’re offered?  No.  If I trip over a tree root while walking through my timber, am I a “stump violence” victim?  No.  What about when little Johnny pushes Mary off the playground equipment?  Is Mary a “Merry-go-round violence” victim?  Nope…

Is there such a thing as a “Ghost Gun” in any true sense?  NO!  There are homemade firearms.  There might even be DIY guns.  But there are no such things as ghost guns.  We don’t use the term “assault weapon” in place of a semi-auto rifle, do we?  No, we quit that nonsense.  We even try to resist “high capacity” magazines, as we know a Glock 17 was designed to house 17 rounds of ammunition in the standard magazine, not 10 or 7 or less.

We truly need to be careful we’re not using a highly successful propaganda tool of the folks who hate liberty and despise freedom.  Words matter and there is no such thing as a ghost gun.  Homemade firearms?  Yes.  Ghost guns?  No.

The only way for truth to win out is to call out lies.  Don’t even get me started on self-refuting silliness like “common-sense gun control” and things like that.  After all, we know “gun control” is a lie too.  When you hear “gun control” you can bet the farm what they really mean is “people control” across the board.  Oh, and by the way, in all the confusion we seem to have forgotten that homemade firearms have been completely legal, ethical, and moral for as long as our nation has existed.  Isn’t that central to the issue?

In Liberty,

Michael Ware – IFC