We need to get more guns into the hands of children. I'm not saying that just for shock value. I'm not saying it because I'm some twisted pop-culture demon out to be the web version of Marilyn Manson, either, nor am I some statist writing out of irony. I mean what I say: we need to get more guns into the hands of children.

     Presumably, those of us who oppose gun control measures do so because we believe that guns are a good thing. That is, we believe that the individual ownership of firearms is among the best possible encouragments and protections to one's well-being and happiness; that the taking of responsibility for one's own self-defense is not simply a moral imperative, but a "personal empowerment" in the most literal sense of the word; and that a basic knowledge of firearms is as essential to a whole individual as the study of language, mathematics, the arts, athletics, or philosophy. If we do not believe these things, we have no business supporting gun rights, self-defense, or the freedom to bear arms of any kind; either it is good to be armed, or it is not. If it is good, we should be encouraging it.