My Pitch On Why Most Men & Women Should Own Guns

The balance of polite society and the law of the jungle are constantly intermingled in a push pull resting atop a blade’s edge. That fight is alive and well today with a laundry list of factors adding to the fragility of humankind nowadays. The number of mind altering substances that people are on presently, stirs together a cocktail akin to fentanyl. Just one touch, even second hand, and it can end you.

It fuels levels of psychosis not seen before. SSRI’s and heavy handed doleouts of powerful pharmaceutical prescriptions. Hormone altering compounds in water, food, clothing, cosmetics and more. Alcohol as plentiful as water. Popularization of psychedelics that are the textbook definition of high risk high reward with a vast library of personal anecdotes batting from both sides of that plate. Low carb diets. Part tongue in cheek on that last one, part serious, but story for another time. It’s the wild west out there in many ways, but then again, it always has been.

A great documentary on pharmaceuticals and the darkness of that industry, Prescription Thugs.

The last and most pervasive is social and other media launching a Genghis Khan level assault on society to construct false gods of consumerism and status promising the almighty payoff for devotion to their cause: love, and feeling like you’re enough. Instead leaving many with a damaged soul, either because of how it makes you look at yourself, or how you’ve chosen to conduct your life based on those false prophets. This analysis isn’t coming from a viewpoint of rules for thee not for me, I without a doubt have tangled with this and did not come out on top, if anything, almost six feet under.

Several people also falling for propaganda these outlets push, convincing them extremism is the only solution in a must act now fashion for the greater good, with that end game of that solution rarely ever falling outside of a violent one.

Any single one of those are powerful enough to put one in an altered state. Combining two or more is commonplace that paints a tough reality for many. Many still function well in society because of this, but there’s a reason I say many and not every. Crime is no longer reserved for nightfall and the shadows. Broad daylight now gets a piece of the action, with the mental state of many held together by a hair thin tripwire.

There’s always been evil. While the media certainly does its share of outrage bait, there’s also acts that, simply just being reported as news for exactly what happened, say all that needs to be said. Look no further than the NYC subways as of late. Stabbings, a woman being set on fire and a dead body being robbed twice and sodomized. That is steeped in wickedness.

However the following question, I don’t have an answer to. Is every instance of harm, whether it takes another life or not, all from truly terrible people? Or more than ever are there mountain sized overreactions on what is, plain as day, a mole hill, due to fractured all around health conditions many live in that lead to decisions that ruin the lives of others and themselves? Regardless, I think random violent human behavior is more unpredictable than ever.

Is the world safer today vs the past? I don’t think it’s clear cut. 2025 versus 200 years ago? Undoubtedly. This year vs 30, 40, 50 years ago? I’m hesitant to say yes. Psychologically, I don’t think so. I believe it’s fair to say culture was more family centered, materialism and cost of living were in check, there was a lot of low barrier to entry, liveable wage domestic employment, and pharma was not advertising on tv. Less avenues for psychological manipulation and hollow trappings. Instead, people had more meaning to live for.

Why does this matter? If you take hope and meaning away, then hand out drugs like skittles that are meant to make you not kill yourself with the side effects of it might make you want to kill yourself…well that’s the eyebrow raiser to say the least. A la, the rise in asocial violence. Bats don’t swing themselves, knives don’t thrust at free will, and guns don’t load themselves and pull their own triggers. People make those decisions.

It’s an all out assault on the resilience of mankind. Yet on the opposite side of this double edged sword, more access to information and remedies like no time in history. A huge part of society slamming on the brakes of the vehicle carrying their soul, right before it goes off the cliff, to take a look at oneself and the pain associated with existence. Putting their true best foot forward to address those personal and worldly demons I listed before, with more modalities and brilliant minds offering help to do so than ever, rather than drinking through it like our forefathers or lashing out at others.

I believe in the hope and power to improve and protect yourself. Immensely.

Swallow the white pill, spit out the black pill

Much more in the light of that side vs the darkness of what I laid out so far that is destroying many that can lead to harming others on top of it. Yet one must tread with an extreme magnitude of heedfulness. Resources to guide us to either side of these fences are all in the same playground.

How Does This Relate to Firearm Ownership?

For as long as humans lived before recently, violence was not an even playing field. Like any physical confrontation, there’s a strong factor of decision making abilities and intellectual reaction time, but the largest of them all, was just that, being large.

Body size, strength and physical prowess. Largely determined by genetics. Biggest, always best, when all other traits were equal. Yes there were weapons, and tactics go a long way, but arrows don’t fly two thousand feet per second, and once a distance is closed, at a certain point it is pure nasty brute strength that declares the victor. There’s a reason weight classes exist in martial arts.

When did this change? The famous saying goes: “God made man. Sam Colt made them equal.” Sam Colt, founder of Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC, did not make the first ever revolver, but he was the first to do so on a mass produced scale with his Paterson model created in 1837 that changed the playing field of firearm ownership in this country forever.

Firearms had been around for hundreds of years, but were not able to successfully shoot multiple rounds of ammunition in succession on an easy to acquire, transportable scale. Guerilla warfare with handmade weapons against single shot guns still had a fighting chance against each other, as evidenced in the battles of the US Army and law enforcement against Native American tribes, most notably the Comanche.

However, techonology disrupted as it often does. Armed with Colt revolvers, at the Battle of Walker’s Creek in 1844, fifteen Texas Rangers bested eighty Comanche warriors. Multiple fights of the same lopsided combatant ratio ensued, and it became set in stone. Man no longer had a chance against man, if it was not with a repeating firearm of this nature.

In 1856 enclosed ammunition cartridges were patented by Rollin White, used by Smith & Wesson to create the modern gun cartridge we use today vs black powder rounds before that. This made for insanely easier and quicker reloading. Four years later Benjamin Tyler Henry, creator of Henry rifles, made the first commercially successful lever action repeating rifle which was not possible with black powder ammunition. The capacity and accuracy of guns grew exponentially with this.

Thirteen years after that, Colt released the Model 1873, a cultural icon. One of the most reliable, durable and simple handguns of all time. As recognizable today as the Nike Swoosh or Apple logo. The cowboy gun of the westerns, the Single Action Army, the Peacemaker.

John Wayne is his final movie, The Shootist, about a legendary gunfighter at the end of his life, seen here holding a Colt Single Action Army 1873 Replica

Colt creating the first mass produced revolver was like the four minute mile of gun manufacturing. Once people saw what was possible, the advancements and innovations that followed were seismic. A wild amount of progress was made in a 25 year span. Coming up on nearly 200 years post Paterson revolver, and the general advancements in weapons technology has been near indescribable.

While legendary in their own right, guns back then were also big heavy chunks of metal weighing multiple pounds and impossible to conceal in minimal clothing. Nowadays there are pocket sized guns with a hard plastic frames that are half the size, three times as light weighing less than one pound loaded, and still with twice the capacity of those six shooters.

My Point in This History Lesson

I wanted to lay this out, because a lot of that brutal harsh world which necessitated firearms advancements, still exists today. The modern world has afforded a lot of children to be raised in bubbles of warmth, stability and love, as they should be.

However, especially as one gets to the age where you have more autonomy to go out in the world, it should be made abundantly clear the dangers woven into and in close proximity to normal well functioning life. The only thing that can physically stop you from someone doing harm to you, is to be able to physically bring a greater force on them in the act of doing so.

As surmised before, you don’t want to leave that chance of fate to Mother Nature who gave some as much brawn, as they have, bad intentions. The six degrees of connections earlier when discussing drug use, is also scary when it comes to those who have had violent or near violent encounters, if you are lucky enough to be reading this and not had one yourself.

Men are typically more aware of this. Physical consequences for your actions are often understood in group social dynamics amongst other males as they become young adults. Talk shit, get hit. Of course, many still learn that lesson the hard way, or unfortunately aren’t around to tell of that wisdom as it sadly came too late or at the expense of their life.

For the men, I’ll keep it brief. You are the protector of what you love, friends and family. It’s great to be in good shape, martial arts are a wonderful tool, but no one is bulletproof. The firearm makes us equal.

It builds a certain confidence that cannot be found in any other form or function. A simple compact pistol, which holds sixteen rounds of ammunition, brings a degree of comfort and safety that has not been matched by anything else man made in terms of ease of use, effectiveness, transport, and cost. On top of that, a reliable affordable option is most likely available for purchase within ten miles of wherever you live in the US.

A friend of mine had such a wonderful statement that I think every man should embrace. We were talking about the PSA Dagger. It is a pistol we both like and was telling him hopefully that it was a low enough price to entice some friends to take that jump, as there are a lot of skills to be acquired and fun to be had for a very reasonable amount of money.

I of course would love every single one of my friends to get heavy into tactical shooting with an AR-15, pistol and full kit of equipment. Yet, even buying a single pistol, holster and spare magazine holster training once every 2-3 months after establishing a solid safe base could give anyone a tremendous amount of skills and confidence that puts them miles ahead of those who own a gun but never use it, let alone those that don’t have one at all.

Dry fire does that too. It can easily be done in the comfort of your own home, and is free.

Don’t be like Mr. Whiskers. Practice safe dry fire.

He mentioned how dagger is such an appropriate name for it, as in life, there’s those that pick up the sword like an AR15, and those that pick up the dagger, a pistol. Not everyone is meant or able to pick up both. Therefore, to you men out there, if you are just starting out, or don’t see yourself as an AR guy or have a physical deficiency where you can’t, don’t let that stop you.

There is still so much value in the proficiency of a simple semi-automatic pistol you carry or keep at home, with a little bit of added equipment and training.

Ladies, Let’s Chat

What I just said about men, applies to you in your own right, but I think there needs to be more of a picture painted of what you’re up against. Do I think from a purity of humanity standpoint females should have to defend themselves? No, it’s women and children on the lifeboats for a reason. Sadly, they are not immune to the physical brutality this world and its bad actors can inflict upon them. Many times, it’s other women dolling that out too. Why did I want to have a section dedicated to you?

Girls don’t like to think about these things. Cindy Lauper’s smash hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” isn’t solely a catchy pop mega hit, it’s the perfect summation of their very nature. I don’t take credit for this analysis, but rather, an anonymous man by the name of Med Gold in the Twitter and Substack world.

It’s not fun to live in the gravity of these situations. Therefore many turn a blind eye to the dangers of society. Men are exposed to it whether they like it or not, it is part of the burden of being a man. A lot of people say we need more gun laws. Background checks. Psychological tests to own guns, a friend of mine even suggested recently. Let me pose this to you. What stops people from doing illegal things?

I would say the fear of physical repercussions, and the legal consequences if caught. Does that stop people from doing them? No. Speeding is illegal. Yet, almost everyone does it, because the consequences if caught are minor. So that must mean that no one does anything very illegal, because of the consequences? I think you see where I’m going with this.

You know what is legal? Firearm ownership. You know what is illegal, in every form and fashion? Cocaine. The minimum for a third degree felony, one to four grams of cocaine possession, is 2-10 years in prison. You know what’s common when it comes to the booger sugar? Almost everyone knows at least one person who has tried it, if they themselves haven’t. Did I mention it’s completely illegal? The six degrees of nose candy connections are astoundingly higher to those that have committed gun crimes.

What makes you think, someone who wants to do something very illegal, like a crime involving firearms, will stop doing bad things, because a law, sign, or test says so? There’s no legal channel to buy cocaine. If people are not allowed to legally purchase a gun, they will buy one, and use it illegally. People already do tons of things that are illegal. Drunk driving and killing someone while behind the wheel too, in the event you’re thinking “well they’re not hurting others by doing coke” bs.

The only thing stopping people is their conscience. Everyone is a law abiding citizen until they decide they don’t want to be. Many already don’t, and haven’t been caught. It became magically popular to hate cops, yet everyone dials 911 like their hand is on fire when they need them.

The average response time is 5-10 minutes. There are 1,500 police officers for the roughly 1,000,000 residents of Austin, Texas. If anything gets really out of hand, like a natural disaster, there’s a good chance no one is coming to save you.

A firearm is the only tool that levels the playing field when you’re facing a situation alone. Nearly every adult on this earth can hold steady hands and apply five pounds of finger pressure to a trigger.

Don’t misunderstand me though, owning a gun isn’t a “fool proof, you’re safe forever” easy button. Equally as important are situational awareness and learning some hands on self-defense.

A story I heard years back described a woman who had been a previous victim of sexual assault, was attacked by a man in daylight in a large box store parking lot. He had her arm pinned to where she couldn’t reach her gun, and her german sheppard was locked in her car.

She was able to get away due to some self-defense skills she had from training. It’s great she had those skills. She’s lucky she made it through unharmed considering the situation. All things being equal though, just a few seconds difference where she could have gotten to her gun first, none of that would have had to be the case. The firearm would have ended the conflict swiftly.

It’s the ultimate hedge against evil. When I speak of gun owernship for self-defense, it the absolute worst case, last option scenario. Do everything in your power to best assess your environment constatly and hopefully avoid it.

Why I Believe This Should Matter to Women

Women, on the scale of the entire history of their sex, are spending more time alone than they ever have before. It’s true for everyone in first world countries, but the comparative scale for females especially has been substantial. There’s always been social outcast and lone wolf men.

Droves of women living alone into their mid to late thirties and beyond? A very new development. Women are staying single longer than they ever have before, and divorce rates add to this as well.

I would argue even when dating or married, they still have more alone time than they would have in the same scenario a few decades ago. I attribute this to the modern social setting. Boys night and ladies night out on the town, the multitude of events that can keep one busy every day ending in y that may keep spouses separate from each other even once per week.

In the past it would have been entire groups of families getting together in safer controlled home environments with your physical protector of your father or husband almost always around. More populated areas naturally have more physical separation through choices of where and when to spend time, along with added chances to come across unsavory types. There’s nothing wrong with these things, merely the reality I’m trying to properly illustrate.

This is also not the society to save every damsel in distress with male intervention and settling issues like gentlemen in a respectful showdown of fisticuffs. A heart breaking degree of citizens would probably just pull a phone out and record what’s happening. Even those that still abide by a strong moral code of “don’t harm others”, there is without a doubt more hesitation by those to help, due to the modern legal system. People do not want to be put into the shoes of Daniel Penny with what he was facing for legal charges.

My Final Pitch to You

I recognize many of you would never want to carry a gun, but I would say, at least consider one for home defense. At the absolute minimum, even a $200 single barrel .410 shotgun with a 000 buckshot round in it is vastly better than anything else you’d have on your premises. You can easily learn those skills at a clay target shooting range.

Everyone drops their guard where they live, because it’s their safe space. However, that is the right type of situation someone looking to take advantage of another is looking for. Modern homes and apartments are not built like Fort Knox. Many are easy to get into, unless meticulously addressed, and frankly provide plenty of cover with fences, shrubs and more for intruders to not be noticed.

1. If you’re not single, recognize that your man and protector isn’t always around. If you’re a two woman household, odds are neither of you are UFC fighters, and if you are, there’s a reason the sexes don’t fight, and the aforementioned weight classes exist. If you’re currently living alone, no further explanation is needed. If you don’t think someone can physically dominate you and you’ll be able to do a Marvel level hulk up, go take a free brazilian jiu-jitsu beginner class. That notion will firmly end right then and there. Men, you as well.

2. There is no law or abstract barrier to stop someone from doing something to you that you don’t want done. A gun is the best chance when it’s a situation you can’t outrun, avoid or escape. People fight through stabbings, pepper spray, tasers and more. No one fights through five well placed shots in their chest.

3. Guns are fun! Gents, the cure to male loneliness is runnin and gunnin with the boys. Chicas, go shopping for new outfits with your friends and get after it. Grab some new active wear to do your best Jade Struck impression. She’s pretty much the actual version of Halle Barry’s character in John Wick 3. Cowboy boots aren’t functional for shooting but snag some to give you that Annie Oakley western mojo on the shotgun clay shooting range.

If what I wrote resonated with you, look into your local area for lessons. Check out Google reviews and even Reddit, which has a very active and pretty transparent gun community. Aside from the random stray, they are pretty on par for helping diagnose if a location is good or not. Check out my other, albeit much longer, article on my Substack, discussing how to find the right handgun for you. A brief three minute summation can also be found on my YouTube channel.

The options are vast, and some, way cooler than you thought possible.

If you’re in Austin, Texas or visiting at some point and have questions, reach out! If you felt this was valuable, along with anything else I put out there, I’d appreciate if you’d share it with others. I will leave you with this quote.

“I would rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”