If you look back over the course of history, you'd be surprised to see how you can hold back a lot of evil with little.
A handful of people who are willing to apply violence can strike fear into the hearts of a large group of violent people. The Spartans proved that at Thermopylae. Carlos Hathcock in Vietnam proved that a single well-laced bullet can send an army into disarray. Alvin York singularly captured an entire German battalion in WW1 because their commander kept losing men and decided that surrender to a Christian man from Tennessee was the less deadly option.
Oftentimes, defeating evil just takes the will to do it and you don't need a whole lot to accomplish it.
No one understands this more than evil people or at least people with evil intent. Bullies often resort to intimidation more than violence because resorting to violence might mean physical retaliation and that could lead to being exposed as not being as tough as advertised. At that point, control over others becomes difficult to maintain.
So evil only pushes so far. Pushing further might incite wrath it can't overcome.
At this time, no one is more justifiably wrathful than Israel. As the death toll from Saturday's attack continues to mount over 1200 people and videos and images of the atrocities they committed continue to be released, it can be understood that the Israeli people are hearing the Doom music kick in and are purging evil wherever they find it.
But there's a greater wrath still that sleeps. The last time it was awoken, it brought chaos and death before it brought order. It laid waste to entire armies and even leveled entire cities with a power the world had not seen before.
I'm talking about you. The average American citizen.
Foreign nations love to write off Americans as fat, lazy, and stupid, but underneath the insults is the basic knowledge that when activated you will bring forth the horrors of the Earth and be happy warriors while you do it. Attacks on Americans aren't ever done to their faces. We must be taken by surprise when our guard is down and our eyes are elsewhere.
Nations fear scenarios when enemies will quietly come down from the sky in order to kill, maim, and conquer. For many Americans, this is a fantasy we sometimes discuss at parties and get-togethers. Some of us have detailed plans about it. We see the film Red Dawn as a fun scenario, not a horror movie.
The rest of the world sees you as somewhere between dangerous and insane, and that's not a bad thing. You are the main things standing between a peaceful civilization and a total breakdown of society and believe me, there are elements out there that would love a total breakdown of American society.
The pro-Palestine elements around the world would love to see what happened to Israel happen here in America. In fact, they tried to encourage something like that happening with the announced "day of Jihad." Our name is often cursed right alongside Israel's when we're spoken about by these radicals. They would love to wreak havoc on us, but you're their biggest issue.
You're an issue because you live in a country that values, celebrates, and even obsesses with bearing and using firearms. Would-be invading armies don't invade because they know their offensive would be halted by groups of American drinking buddies getting together in various states to defend their local liquor stores. Church groups would unite to defend neighborhoods with AR-15s. They would never know which old lady is defenseless or is a Grandma with a Glock. For them, it would be horrifying chaos where death could be around every corner.
Sleeper cells have more success as they would conduct violent acts against unsuspecting Americans, but even then, their time is short. Terrorism in the United States is oftentimes a one-way ticket with the terrorist's goal being to kill as many people as they can before someone with a gun eventually shows up and puts them down. But even then, they have to pick their targets and locations wisely. In America, guns are more common in some places than others. Certain locations are defenseless, making them prime targets.
Which brings me to my overall point.
The world thinks you're crazy because you live side-by-side with your firearm. They see the gun violence in America and believe it's dangerous here.
They're half right. An American is a dangerous thing. We're not to be trifled with. Americans utilize their firearms all the time in order to inflict harm, sadly for evil purposes, but most of the time for the protection of ourselves and others.
You want that reputation to be maintained. This is why your gun rights are so important. This is why everyone who can should own a firearm and become competent with it.
It's hard to be conquered when the people you want to conquer think the attempt would be a fun afternoon, and I'd take Jim and his drinking buddies over some idiot screaming "Jihad" any day of the week.