It’s NOT The Gun
- October 8, 2024
- By Jared Daub
It’s NOT The Gun
While it is easy to look to the Gun as the solution, we want to argue that: It’s NOT the Gun.
Have you ever become consciously aware that you were wrong? I think if we put ego and pride aside, we all can remember a time where we realized how little we know. Sometimes it is innocent; We may simply have been taught something as truth, only to later find out that it wasn’t as clear cut as we thought. A huge moment of growth occurs the moment we recognize, then correct.
I became a gun owner in an election season.
I bet many of you did as well. You saw the “writing on the wall”. You witnessed decay, chaos, and our values being thrown in a dumpster fire. So you reacted. You bought that first firearm. What a moment in your life to have that experience, to exercise a human right! But what happens when it finally dawns on you: Owning a gun isn’t enough. I know it hit me like a ton of bricks and shook me to my core. Those first range days after I bought my first M&P 9mm proved to me: Owning a gun means nothing without mastery. Further, as I grew older I began to wrestle with my own vision and purpose in my life. If I don’t have a vision, then what am I doing?
I am tasked to defend my family, but I was not capable.
When faced with a hard truth, how will you respond? For a moment, I considered putting my pistol in the safe and accepting defeat. As crazy as it sounds, I felt like less of a man. Why would God task me with providing and protecting my small family, yet I can’t even hit a target 10 yards away? How can I break the glass ceiling I was facing? What were my next steps? These questions led me down a painful journey of erasing and re-writing my understanding of the firearm. I also had to wrestle with my responsibility as a firearm owner. I have a responsibility as a firearm owner to pursue mastery. This made me realize that if I wanted to be capable, it would take much more than a firearm.
Would you die for your family?
I heard it asked “You say you would die for your family, but will you live for them?” What am I doing NOW to live for my loved ones? I came to realize that I romanticized the idea of sacrificing it all for them to keep them alive and safe, provided for. Don’t mistake my words, I would lay my life down if needed to save my family. But the real question is: WHO am I becoming now? WHAT am I doing and WHY do I exist? What is my VISION and PURPOSE? If I don’t even have the clarity to answer these questions, then what am I even doing? Who am I kidding? This is a battle of my ideals, a reality I framed, one I had to deconstruct to replace with something much more powerful and focused: A renewed vision and purpose that drives my actions.
A gun is not a savior
Your gun is no savior. It cannot save you. The Gun is simply wood, plastic, and metal. It does nothing without your input. You choose whether that input is mastery, or misguided. Understand my challenge: We care about you and want to see you succeed in the mastery of the gun. But first, you need to understand your vision.
A Republic, if we can keep it.
We have the luxury of forgetting our foundation in our comfortable state of existence. It’s almost as thought the presence of our human rights created the perfect storm. We don’t cherish these rights, or the historical rites of passage, so they wither away. It’s not that I disagree with our rights, it’s that I believe the unfortunate reality is comfort makes us weaker. This comfort has led to us assuming our ability to exercise rights and protect our own will always remain. At the same time, we worship the gun as if it is WHY we are free. We fall victim to the belief that it is THE symbol of our freedom.
Firearms then fall into two different realities. On one hand, we have people who collect guns, speak of how they’ll stand against tyrants, but lack even the slightest vision and purpose driving that belief. We fall prey to the belief that the gun is simply for providing food and home defense. On the other hand, our people fear the gun and desire to regulate it at all costs, even at the risk of forsaking their human rights. Both miss the mark. Both “camps” do not fully grasp the right of the gun, or the responsibility in owning it.
I was focused in the wrong areas.
For many years I was focused on the rifle without understanding the weapon. As with most areas of growth, I required input from others who have mastered their craft. It took these people around me who are ahead of me to unlock my true understanding of the rifle and to also learn to prioritize it. I remember those first training classes where I showed up thinking I was going to learn how to shoot, but I learned more about who I was and what I needed to learn. Isn’t that the crazy part? When you begin to unlock a better understanding of firearms and training, you start to understand how biased we are towards the firearm. You begin to realize that the true weapon is your mind; Train your mind, discover your vision.
Only then do you start to see how the gun fits into your life. But it goes even further than just mastering the gun and your mind. Our responsibility extends to teaching our children the same lessons we learned. Equipping the next generations with guns is great, teaching them the deeper meaning and responsibility of mastery is more important. The human right to own firearms does not itself protect liberty from tyranny. A capable citizenry who are masters of the gun, who have a vision for their lives, and a purpose for fighting is the true application in which liberty is secured.
Where do I go from here?
I’ve come to realize that the gun is just a small part of a larger picture. My desire to lead my family well drives me to create rites of passage for them as well as for me. As I grow, learn, and expand, it is my duty to share that with my little ones. It is my purpose to equip them to be better than I could be. I realized that it’s not the gun. It’s the reason I bought it in the first place that matters the most.