The Great Equalizer
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The Great Equalizer is a title used for firearms, referring to their ability to make physically weak or unskilled people equal, in confrontation, to the strongest, most combat-skilled, and most aggressive people[1].
A criminal, for example, who sees a little old lady walking through a dark alley in a society where concealed carry of handguns are allowed must wonder if the reason she risks the shortcut is that she carries a handgun clutched inside her purse. In a society where guns are illegal, she would be utterly helpless against assault or robbery from him; but if she has a gun, then all of his strength and aggression is rendered irrelevant[2].
This phrase has been used, in reference to firearms since some time after 1836, when it was applied specifically to the Colt revolver[3], the first modern-style handgun; easy for anyone to load and use. Previous weapons typically required strength and coordination, for example the muzzle-loaded muskets of the American Revolution.
This phrase, having become famous and common, is occasionally adapted to refer to some other thing that is seen as equalizing the powerful and weak, as with the liberation of speech by the Internet, allowing everyone, not only establishment-run media entities, to communicate ideas worldwide, or nuclear weapons, allowing weak nations like North Korea and Pakistan to hold off powerful ones like the United States and India. Once a nation has nuclear weapons, it's generally considered unassailable, a fear expressed currently by American neocons in reference to the nuclear research of Iran.
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