U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “[U]tilitarian ethics refers to the judgment of a course of action being good (right) or bad (wrong) based on societal consequences, such as cost, and not necessarily on benefits to the individual,” Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. writes in America, Guns, and Freedom, an exhaustive study on the Second Amendment and its perversion for political purposes by the medical establishment.
“Physicians have been trained from time immemorial to place the interest of the patient first, rather than society, and never do harm to the patient deliberately under any circumstances.”
Ignoring that is exactly what those exploiting their medical credentials to create the illusion of qualifications in all their pronouncements have been doing. And Faria is just the guy to not only point that out but to tell us how they do it and how to counter the lies. He has also been one of the authorities, in the truest sense of the word, whose evidence-based arguments have been most influential in guiding my understanding of politicized medical establishment malpractice. I’d initially run across (and began citing) his landmark “The Perversion of Science and Medicine (Part III): Public Health and Gun Control Research” years ago, and began learning more about his prolific works and the remarkable mind behind them.
Faria was one of the figures whose testimony before Congress was instrumental in the passage of the Dickey Amendment, precluding the Centers for Disease Control from advocating for “gun control” (not from all research, as citizen disarmament proponents who demand taxpayer-subsidized junk “agenda science” would have us believe).
By way of his own qualifications, Faria “is a retired neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, medical editor and author, medical historian and medical ethicist, public health critic and advocate for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” His Curriculum Vitae-documented credentials and professional achievements will take longer to read than this book review.
Faria’s experience with freedom is firsthand. His parents were Cuban underground freedom revolutionaries, and at 13, he escaped with his father from the communist Castro regime. He wrote about that and more in Cuba in Revolution: Escape from a Lost Paradise. He has also established himself, along with all his other achievements, as a published authority on communism and totalitarianism, and further, is the author of Medical Warrior: Fighting Corporate Socialized Medicine, and Vandals at the Gates of Medicine: Historic Perspectives on the Battle over Health Care Reform.
Back to the book at hand, it’s almost impractical to write a synopsis, the ground it covers is so varied and wide. In it we learn how “the public health establishment threw science into the wastebasket, confusing microbiology and pathology with sociology and politics.” Faria shows us how the corrupt “public health model” of “gun violence” is really social engineering, not science, how to spot and debunk fraudulent “studies,” and how the American Medical Association has discarded the scientific method to instead push partisan politics.
I have to put an aside in here because I don’t want anybody getting the impression that this is all going to be specialized and dry to the point where their eyes glaze over. It’s interesting every step of the way to those with enquiring minds who value knowledge and learning. I confess I even laughed out loud—whether Dr. Faria intended me to or not—when he was discussing researchers depending on government funding having their credibility and professional reputations questioned for their part in such manipulation, and added parenthetically:
“(I would also say honor, but the term is considered anachronistic and antiquated in such quarters.)”
That and another term he uses several times, “moral courage,” ought to resonate with every gun owner who defends the right to keep and bear arms. An extensive index, bibliography and references notwithstanding, this is not a book for eggheads (although it should be as well)—it is primarily for seekers and defenders of the truth.
Thus Faria departs from showing the gunquacks for what they are to showing us the relevance of “The Second Amendment in Modern Society,” then looks at “Tyranny and the European Social Democracies,” assesses “Mass Shootings and the Media,” and ends up exploring his title thesis, including a truism some of us have been advocating for years:
“Offense is the best defense for advocating gun rights.”
I encourage you to get a copy of America, Guns, and Freedom for yourself. I also encourage you to learn more about Dr. Faria’s work at Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, and from his AmmoLand interview by John Crump. It’s critical that we who have a vested interest in spreading the truth share this information with fellow gun owners because, as Dr. Faria recently informed his Facebook followers:
“My book is no longer No 1 release in either public health or public policy. Instead, David Hemenway’s pro-gun control book is touted by the liberal media and promoted by Amazon…”
As long as you’ve read down this far and I presumably still have your attention, there’s one more thing I encourage you to do that will cost you nothing except a couple of minutes of your time at most: Contact your local library. Find out if they carry America, Guns, and Freedom. If not, find out who you have to talk to in order to make that happen.
If I had to sum up my review in one sentence it would be:
This is essential information for everyone who considers himself (or would like to be) an informed defender of the right to keep and bear arms.
That said, America, Guns, and Freedom is available in hardcover or by Kindle from Amazon.
Get it. Make no mistake; you’ll be doing it for yourself. And tell your friends. And hey, Christmas is coming up…
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(Tangentially related: “Castro’s Legacy Summed Up in His Three-Word Question about Arms.”)
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
“moral courage”……In the United States: There was none when the government instituted the NFA in 1936. There was none when the 1968 GCA was copied from the Nazi gun control laws. There was none when it was discovered that the FBI had supplied explosives to muslim terrorists used in the first World Trade Center bombing. There was none with the banning of new machine guns from American People in 1986. There was none when the federal government shot, gassed and burned alive American men, women, children and infants at Waco. There was none when New York and California banned ammo,… Read more »
Rather than build and destroy straw men, take David Codrea’s advice and read and learn. The NFA was passed in 1934.
@Heed, I just presumed that it was a typo. You are up early!
And the NFA should have been invalidated by the SCOTUS verdict in 1939 United States v. Miller.
read for meaning, not anal retentive accuracy.
Whether it was 1934, 5, 6, or 1984, does not matter. It still happened, and those who were supposed to be watching on the ramparts were not. As is the case today.
Exceptionally well stated. I’m saving this list in my OneNote section on Wisdom. Thanks.
I get your point: and fully. Thing is, Waco was all David Koresh’s making. While the ATF and Janet Reno could have handled things better, and differently, it was David (Vernon Wayne Howell,) who saw to everyone’s demise. He is the one to have started the fire that took all their lives. David had deliberately painted himself into a corner, as witnessed by hours of tapped phone calls, without telling his flock what he was up to. It was 1993, and the time had come for him to answer up to all his followers concerning his prophecies. To keep from… Read more »
@wjd, Yes, murdered them over a unpaid tax allegation. Since when does the Federal government kill people over a tax dispute?
@StWayne In agreement with Will and Wild Bill on this one. Claims should be made considering evidence, not pointing at the accused or a prop and trying to justify it. If I remember correctly, Testimony after the fire stated that Koresh was injured at the time. The claims that he was busy raping women during the final hour were stated to be impossible due to his injuries. Further, during cease fire and surrender negotiations, it was reported after the fire that the Davidians inside were afraid the building would be torched to get rid of evidence. (A certain door to… Read more »
@StWayne – so you are saying we need to wary of what happens when antifa reaches their inevitable end? Will they turn from relatively sporadic and usually nonfatal violence to all out war? Given the stories of heavily armed – militant wing of the movement, perhaps it is time to buy several sets of body armor, armor our cars, and most importantly finally drag my wife to the range. As with so many things in life, self defense works better with a team.
There was none at Sand Creek.
There was none at Wounded Knee
Medical will always use politics to make more money. And politicians will always use all resources to make more money. Greed. The business of medicine. Doctors and Politicians have no place telling citizens what they can and cannot do with arms, as it’s a guaranteed right. Politician’s specifically violate Article VI by trying to legislate arms regulations on citizens period.
Core, Before knocking DRGO, you might want to learn something about them.
There is a group called “Doctors for responsible Gun ownership” they post a lot of pro gun stories on FB…
Yea, blind people make great neurosurgeons. It’s kind of touch and go.
@Eighty – You are more right than you know. Sometimes neurosurgery is done with a conscious patient – touch a nerve and ask them what it does before clipping and removing that piece of the brain. Don’t know how often they do it that way – but I know it is applicable to brain cancer removal.
Not sure I’d want to go through that. Sometimes it’s just time.
I particularly appreciate the good Dr’s understanding of the American political spectrum as depicted in his very accurate horseshoe diagram: https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/services/mediarender/THISLIFE/005019821063/media/123968866298/medium/1538241305/enhance
It’s kind of a long story, but he got this Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas one year when he was a kid…
@wjd – yeah, it was a bad Christmas for him…