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More guns, more freedom

Human Events, Jul 7, 2000 by Pearcey, J Richard

With all the violence in movies these days, it is a bit of a surprise to hear all the uproar about The Patriot, which portrays young boys of the Revolutionary War era carrying rifles and shooting adults. Given Columbine and other school shootings, how can a socially responsible film do this? The real problem here, however, is that gun control advocates and others don't draw crucial moral distinctions. In fact, given today's moral climate, drawing such distinctions may be beyond them.

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The Patriot begins during the American Revolution in 1776 in South Carolina. Mel Gibson stars as Benjamin Martin- a farmer, widowed father of seven, and hero of the French and Indian War. Martin knows war with England is approaching, and he believes the cause of "no taxation without representation" is just. But he's had his fill of killing and slaughter, and wants to protect his family. "My wife is dead. Who's to care far them if I go to war?"

Against his wishes, Martin's 17-year-old son, Gabriel (played by Heath Ledger), joins the Continental Army. He returns home dazed and wounded after the fall of Charlestonwith the British army not far behind. The English troops march up the road to the Martin's farm determined to wipe out rebel resistance in the area.

The day after the battle, while Martin and his family are caring for the wounded of both sides, the proud British Col. Tavington (played by Jason Issacs) rides up. He is commander of the Green Dragoons, portrayed as a sort of Waffen SS on horseback. In short order, the colonel commands his troops to execute the wounded soldiers of the Continental Army and to arrest and hang Gabriel. Another of Martin's sons tries to prevent his elder brother from being taken away, whereupon Tavington kills the boy with a pistol shot to his back.

Tavington rides away, having detailed a convoy of 20 British troops to escort Gabriel to his appointed end. Immediately, Martin runs into the house, opens a chest full of weapons, and gives muskets to his 10. and 13year-old sons, keeping a tomahawk and several guns for himself. The three sprint through woods and set up an ambush to free Gabriel from the British.

The English are no match for the frontiersmen, whose shooting skills have been honed by years of hunting. All the British soldiers are killed.

This scene has outraged critics and gun control advocates, who say the last thing we need on film these days is a portrayal of kids with rifles shooting people. But what is depicted is not a "killing spree," as one newspaper described it. It's self-defense. As any red-blooded father knows, it's a good thing to protect your family from bad guys. Gibson himself says he would let his children take up guns to defend themselves, and that already he has taken his kids to firing ranges to learn how.

Interestingly, the leftist objection is based on a valid intuition. Liberals sense that, based on their own worldview, there is no moral restraint that would keep kids (or anyone else) from misusing guns. It is, after all, an assumption of liberalism that people cannot control themselves: Lack of moral control (spun as "doing what's natural") is the reason teenagers need condoms, the reason adults need access to abortion, and the reason the federal government must find a cure for AIDS.

Framework for Freedom

Liberals rightly intuit that people who live their lives on the basis of this land of morality cannot be trusted with guns. For, if individuals are autonomous (that is, from the Greek, a law unto themselves), they might possibly choose to become natural-born killers, at it were.

The right and freedom to bear arms is possible, however, in an America where kids are taught, and their characters are so formed, to make moral distinctions (for example, between random murder and self-defense) and to exercise self-control.

It takes strength to be free. And here The Patriot shines, for in the film, as in history, the good guys know where to find other good guys to join the militia-the local tavern, yes, but also in church. There villagers sing hymns, study the Bible, learn of freedom, and hear their esteemed pastor say, `A shepherd must tend his flock, and sometimes fight the wolves." It's where, as the pages of history show, common folk learned that the only adequate basis for a free society is the Biblical framework that says all men are created equal and that no man is above the law, even a king named George.

There's much more to The Patriot than I have space to note here. In any case, should your liberal friends, and the Clintons and Renos of the world, find The Patriot something of a shock to the system, just tell them it's art.

More guns, more freedom

Human Events, Jul 7, 2000 by Pearcey, J Richard

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