The End of Gun Control: 7. The Continuum of Contention
To secure peace amid people, law must secure property from violations & arrange for restitution to make victims whole when contracts are broken. Most of all, violative privileges cannot be tolerated.
The End of Gun Control exists on a continuum that includes agitators for monopoly control on the means of using force in society, on one end, and those who recognize that the whole body of the people except for the few public officials, must be organized, armed, and disciplined to secure a free state. Actual conditions exist at varying degrees within this spectrum but for the most part, presently, the political caste dominates the field and, more importantly, controls the narrative.
Strategies for securing the blessings of liberty are, however, embedded within the founding legal documents of the United States and these, in turn, present ideals that, indeed, offered a philosophical shot heard round the world. A written compact between free and independent polities cooperating for their mutual security, developed after careful examinations of various organizational models from antiquity, and infused with a rich legacy of over several hundred years of Anglo-American legal theory that culminated in a revolution in political affairs. It is upon this momentum that a progression toward liberty can build.
The key element toward peaceful, cooperative, and successful civilization, as Henry Sumner Maine observed, was the move from law based on status to that of contract. The United States constitutional framework continued a march, that began with the Dooms of Aethelred in 1014, toward greater specificity in the contract for governmental services, namely justice and security.
Contracts dispel notions of ‘divine rights’ to rule, to receive entitlements and income, or otherwise interfere with the lives or properties of others due to one’s status, labels, identifications, offices, or titles. The conception of liberty sought by the American quest for a ‘more perfect union’ dispelled all notions of the right of kings or nobility. In fact, these types of titles were notionally outlawed. Equality under the law requires uniform standards of justice and a common denominator with which to judge legal matters. That uniform standard is property and the free exchange thereof.
Government has but one purpose, to protect people in the enjoyment of their property, which begins with the human body and expands out to the other material objects they have infused with their personal energy through labor and trade. Peace is the social condition in which people respect the property of others while war is state of affairs where property boundaries are violated.
All notions of life and liberty are irrelevant without the physical means of expressing these lofty concepts. Therefore, property is the basis of legal analysis, and the clarity of property borders offers consistent lines for determining when violations occur. Contracts are merely agreements for people to exchange property.
To secure peaceful conditions among people in society, law must orient on securing property from violations in the first place and arrange for restitution, to make victims whole, when contracts are broken or the integrity of property is sullied. To maintain equality under law, these standards of justice must equally apply to everyone, foreign or domestic, and without regard for office, position, title, or station in society.
Using Henry Sumner Maine’s criteria once more, the great civilizational advances in law are characterized by movement from status to contract. Conversely, then, every move from contract to status marks a regression toward barbarism. Restoring the blessings of liberty, in a way worthy of passing down to posterity, requires executing laws that are rooted in property and the free exchange thereof. To accomplish this, the political caste cannot be trusted to administer law or justice. Securing justice in a free state is the responsibility of every able-bodied citizen.