Hands off our guns

What is striking about the spectacle Europe witnessed during the Catalan referendum is not the events themselves. The threats from Madrid in the days before the vote had been explicit; it was predictable that the central government would do everything it could to keep control over its richest region.

What is truly disturbing about last Sunday’s events is the reaction of European public opinion. From the silence of the Union – which never misses a chance to show its illiberal face – to condemnations so lukewarm they sound like acquittals: of course violence must always be condemned, but the referendum is illegal…

What does legality stand for in this case? What is the ethical foundation of a law that denies a people the right to choose its own future peacefully? Why should the Spanish Constitution have authority over a region that no longer considers itself part of Spain?

It is always Locke versus Hobbes. But in this age of relativism, what inevitably prevails is the reassuring belief that a mortal god, in exchange for maximum control over our lives, can look after our security and well-being. So, as soon as a spark of freedom comes along to disturb this order, the cult of the god-State – which finds its sacred text in constitutions – degenerates into the indiscriminate use of violence against the very individuals it promises to protect. What is right because it is moral is crushed by what is “right” because it is legal. Respect for the law – the same law that has allowed slavery, genocide and discrimination – replaces the pursuit of justice. The wonders of postmodern thought.

A few hours after the events in Catalonia, the United States witnessed the bloodiest shooting in its recent history: a 64-year-old American citizen opened fire on a crowd in Las Vegas, killing 59 people and wounding 515.

Right on cue came the position of the Democratic Party, backed as always by the media and intellectuals in its campaigns against liberty: the blame for the attack lies – as usual – with the NRA, with guns. Once again the real problems are ignored, such as the growing number of people with mental disorders at large in the United States following the deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric hospitals in the last century; nobody looks closely at the link between gun ownership and safety.

The opportunity to get hold of another fundamental individual right was too tempting: self-defence. What really matters is persuading citizens to give up another little piece of freedom, so that the benevolent Leviathan can take one more step forward. First security, then perhaps healthcare. Until every aspect of people’s lives has become a state monopoly.

“If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” These words, spoken by Reagan in 1964, still ring true insofar as the natural right of individuals to take up arms against a tyrannical state is endangered by the exploitation of fear.

Because, as Catalonia has shown us, it is not always the State that protects the citizen. Often it is the citizen who must protect himself from the State.