Making recent news is the fact that the MV Maersk Alabama has been attacked by seagoing Somali gunmen again – last time was in April, when Vermont sea captain Richard Phillips and the vessel he was in charge of were hijacked. It was several days before U.S. Navy snipers were deployed to the area and killed Phillips’ captors.

This time no hijacking occurred. Why? Maersk had hired and embarked with an onboard armed private security team. As a further boon, although shots were fired, this time there were zero casualties.

Surprisingly, the decision by Maersk received considerable accolades from members of the American military Observe this quote from a November 18 ABC News article by Dana Hughes:

“In a statement, U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Bill Gortney praised the actions of the Maersk Alabama’s crew and security team.

“’Due to Maersk Alabama following maritime industry’s best-practices such as embarking security teams, the ship was able to prevent being successfully attacked by pirates,’ he said.”

And this gem:

“Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet told ABC News that ships cannot rely solely on navy and military patrols to protect them. The Indian Ocean area most prone to piracy is roughly four times the size of Texas.

“’We can’t be everywhere at once,’ he said. ‘It’s incumbent on individual shipping companies that they are able to either conduct evasive maneuvers or use embarked security teams or even use such things as fire hoses to prevent attacks.’”

Yes, you read that right, friends and neighbors. Even government military members readily concede that they are incapable of offering adequate protection on the high seas. Not that it is or should be their legitimate responsibility anyhow. A firm like Maersk should provide for defense of their own crews and property. Government navies, on the other hand, should be disbanded and the institution of taxation (government theft) that supports them abolished outright. Domestically, in America, numerous court cases at all levels of government have long established – in no ambiguous terms – that police and other government agents have no duty to protect members of the public. In short, they’ve all but openly stated that government itself is nothing but a lie; a cynical con-game designed to exploit and dominate.

But back to ships for a moment: I have long advocated for private vessels to be bristling with AR-15s and AK-47s; belt-fed .50 calibers and RPG’s. That should make any cargo or pleasure vessel pretty immune to any assault from anything but an ultra high-tech government warship. And when governments are gone, there won’t be any of those left either.

We’ve just seen a proof-positive example of the benefit of people taking individual initiative at their own expense to defend life and property rather than relying upon socialist tax-financed government. And we’ve seen how much better the results were. The whole tableau speaks well for itself.

In that spirit, I have little more to say myself. Except get armed, be armed, stay armed. Especially if you’re headed through the Gulf of Aden anytime soon. The precedent has already been set. All that remains is to make it common practice, and shut governments out of the defense business. That done, true liberty won’t be far behind.