Brad Edmonds

Brad Edmonds of Montgomery, AL is the July recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award.
Edmonds “has become a prolific, analytical and articulate cyberspace proponent of the individual Sec-ond Amendment civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms,” said John Michel Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director. “As communication gen-erally, and as constitutional com-munication specifically, becomes more and more connected with this new technology, it is essential for the success of our cause that more and more pro-gun rights pro-ponents begin to use and develop the cyberspace technology in pro-moting our side of the issue. Ed-monds already is doing this very well. He is providing an example which others may well be advised to follow. It would be most appro-priate for him to receive this award.”
Edmonds holds a Master of Sci-ence in Industrial Psychology and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition. A banker with Online Banking in Montgomery, he writes regularly for www.LewRockwell.com and www.MissouriLeague.com, and on rare occasions at www.Mises.org. He spent a year in operations train-ing with the Central Intelligence Agency and more than a year as the secretary/administrator at a Methodist church.
In one of his most incisive recent articles, Edmonds pointed out that, “if you are not armed, and the gov-ernment is armed, you‟re at the mercy of the government and of the common hoodlum. Likewise, if you and I and everybody else own guns, there is no chance that we are collectively at the mercy of any-one.
“Common criminals are at the
same time the most immediate and the most trivial reason to own a gun. The most important reason you should own a gun is government. You are neither free nor safe if you are help-less, and only government has the re-sources to take away your ability to defend yourself from criminals, from invasion, and from the government itself. And only government has the resources to kill by the millions.”
In another column, Edmonds out-lined some good reasons for gun own-ership. “Guns,” he stated, “are protec-tion from the government. The Found-ing Fathers knew it. The Federalist Papers (29 and 46, for example) tell us it‟s a good thing for the citizenry to outgun the national government; that the United States would be unique in world history in having an armed, and therefore truly liberated, populace. Court cases following the abolition of slavery established that black Ameri-cans, having been freed from slavery, would not be truly free unless their gun-ownership rights were the same as everyone else‟s.”
Edmonds stated also that, “guns are safe. Bill Clinton told us just last year that 12 children are killed by guns every day in the United States. Brace yourself: He lied. The number is 12 only if the definition of „child‟ reaches up to age 24 and includes gang mem-bers killing each other (mostly in New York and California). If you look at children aged 10 and younger, 72 were killed in 1999 by accident, or three chil-dren every two weeks in a nation of 280 million. That means 72 terrible tragedies, but it also means that when we adjust statistically for the number of guns against the number of every-thing else, guns are safer for children than wading pools, bathtubs, bicycles, and cars. Part of this is because 99-point-something percent of parents don‟t let children play with guns, and most children know that real guns aren‟t toys. And guns don‟t go off by themselves. I can find many cases
where an armed robbery or murder was committed without a gun. Show me one where a gun did it without a criminal.”
He writes that, “guns make people less violent. The first time I bought a gun, I knew I had a dangerous weapon and should act accordingly. I read the owner‟s manual carefully, and the language of it was enough to put anyone in awe of these devices. Further, any gun owner‟s manual is packed with invaluable safety infor-mation. It is a primer on responsible behavior in general. This feeling of responsibility extends beyond shoot-ing. I don‟t do „road rage‟ now. Hav-ing a gun in the car tells me I‟m the one in trouble if hostilities occur. When someone cuts me off or tail-gates, I deliberately drive safely and courteously and behave to avoid any hard feelings with other drivers. At the same time, I am reassured that if some flipping kook simply decides he wants to hurt me, I‟m protected. And I am not unique. The great thing about guns is they have this effect on most all law-abiding gun owners: Choose any state you want that issues concealed-carry permits and you‟ll find that civilians with concealed-carry permits are less of-ten accused of violent crimes than are the police in that state.”
Edmonds believes also that, “guns are good for other things. People collect all sorts of items, from souve-nir figurines to stamps. Guns, in their own right, are enjoyable to inspect. Spending my life with relatively junky computer keyboards and mice, can openers, toaster ovens, and whatever else, it‟s a pleasure just to look at the parts of even an inexpen-sive gun when cleaning it. Every-thing is heavy duty, hardened, and precision made. When the type-writer was being developed in the 19th century, early prototypes were frail, clanky and unreliable.