Guns
Okay I’m a libertarian (libertarian with a small l I believe in limited government and personal freedom) and I don’t own any guns why?
Why well basically, I don’t believe that possession of firearms by private citizens enhances or ensures our freedom in any way, shape or form. Libertarian mythology (and yes there is such a thing) has it that the ownership of hunting rifles, pistols and other popguns by the general public scares politicians and bureaucrats so much it ensures our freedom.
How does putting a pistol, a revolver, an automatic rifle or a shotgun in the hands of private citizens threaten a government that has tanks, helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, fighter planes and nuclear weapons in its arsenal? Ask David Koresh and Randy Weaver how their guns protected their freedoms? David Koresh can’t answer you he’s dead and Randy Weaver well he’s still alive but his wife is dead, it seems their guns did them absolutely no good when Uncle Sam came after them with all of his agents, guns and armored vehicles.
The idea is that politicians will behave themselves if they think Joe Sixpack is packing heat and might be gunning for them. Can you name a single legislator or President who changed his mind on anything because he or she was afraid of an armed citizenry? Okay here’s a little test for you gun owners take your gun to Washington and try to take it into the Capitol or the White House and draw it on the President or any Congressman or Senator and see how long you can live before the Secret Service or the Capitol Police blow you away?
The truth is the average American is about as likely to get near his or her leaders as the average Russian was about to get near Stalin. Even if you could walk up to one of our leaders with a gun chances are you’d get killed by the bodyguards long before you could get away. Even if you killed the leader there’d be another politician to take that politician’s place and little would change. Lyndon Johnson takes John F. Kennedy’s place did that really change anything? Lee Harvey Oswald of course didn’t live to see it. Note the security around the White House and the Capitol shows us how much faith our political leaders have in gun control if they believed it worked they wouldn’t have a secret service. Also ask gun control believers this, why is there so much security around the Queen and the Prime Minister in Britain (which has the strictest gun control laws on Earth)?
Then there’s the argument well the Nazis and Communists had gun control so they were afraid of guns? Can you tell me that the average Party Member in Stalin’s Russia wasn’t packing heat? My guess is that the vast majority of Communists and Nazis carried loaded pistols with them and a great many average people in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and Saddam’s Iraq carried guns with them all the time that didn’t make those societies free. On the other hand some countries with strict gun control (on paper in real life on a per capita basis there are as probably as many guns floating around in Stockholm as in New York) like Holland, Canada, Great Britain and Sweden have been very free.
So what is the truth? Well liberty is an idea, an idea that only works when a majority of people in society including the leaders believe in it. If the majority of your citizens and their leaders believe in liberty you’ll have a free society regardless of the number of guns in circulation. If the majority doesn’t such as those in Iraq there will never be freedom.
Does this mean I believe in gun control? Well no, I don’t like the idea of most people carrying loaded guns (which most people don’t Jane and Joe Sixpack it seems are smarter than libertarian intellectuals they know that wasting their money on firearms doesn’t buy freedom) but I don’t think we need special laws or bureaucracy to control gun ownership. Average people going around armed would be a bad thing but a powerful police force bent on gun prohibition would be worse. Gun prohibitionists like drug and alcohol prohibitionists want to control average people’s lifestyles. Ruby Ridge and Waco resulted from hysterical libertarian gun nuts clashing with hysterical government employed gun nuts. Like drug and alcohol prohibitionists gun prohibitionists want to protect us from ourselves and our natures (while they themselves carry guns of course).
Yes, I’m scared of guns but I’m much more afraid of cars they’re much more dangerous than guns and kill a lot more people but they’re politically more popular. So why aren’t gun prohibitionists trying to ban cars or restrict their use? Unlike guns cars are supported by a massive socialist welfare state that deliberately and systematically killed off efficient privately owned rail transport systems while taxing average citizens to build and maintain dubious roads and highways. The silence is deafening.
So what about self defense? Well yes people do have a right to protect themselves, their families and communities from violent attack but at the moment I don’t think that I’m in any danger of violent attack. The average American is just as likely to be struck by lightning as to face a violent home invasion. Even if I was a basic pump shotgun - my great grandfather’s weapon of choice - would suffice for home defense and it’s legal and cheap and I could use it effectively without wasting several hours a month at the pistol range. Or what about hand grenades? They’re cheap, simple and effective ask any surviving member of the greatest generation what his favorite weapon was in WWII?
As for foreign invasion, do you really think an invading army that could overcome America’s military might is going to be afraid of Joe Sixpack with a hunting rifle? Of course not it’s a ludicrous argument and one that insults our armed forces and the brave people who served in them.
So what do I think of guns, here is what I think of guns, guns are useful tools and dangerous weapons but they are not magic wands you can’t guarantee your liberty by waving them. If you think guns are cool toys to own and play with, go ahead and play with them as long as you do it responsibly but don’t expect the firearm in your pocket to guarantee your freedom it won’t. Plenty of Germans found that out at Dachau and plenty of Russians learned that lesson in the Gulag.
Why well basically, I don’t believe that possession of firearms by private citizens enhances or ensures our freedom in any way, shape or form. Libertarian mythology (and yes there is such a thing) has it that the ownership of hunting rifles, pistols and other popguns by the general public scares politicians and bureaucrats so much it ensures our freedom.
How does putting a pistol, a revolver, an automatic rifle or a shotgun in the hands of private citizens threaten a government that has tanks, helicopter gunships, heavy artillery, fighter planes and nuclear weapons in its arsenal? Ask David Koresh and Randy Weaver how their guns protected their freedoms? David Koresh can’t answer you he’s dead and Randy Weaver well he’s still alive but his wife is dead, it seems their guns did them absolutely no good when Uncle Sam came after them with all of his agents, guns and armored vehicles.
The idea is that politicians will behave themselves if they think Joe Sixpack is packing heat and might be gunning for them. Can you name a single legislator or President who changed his mind on anything because he or she was afraid of an armed citizenry? Okay here’s a little test for you gun owners take your gun to Washington and try to take it into the Capitol or the White House and draw it on the President or any Congressman or Senator and see how long you can live before the Secret Service or the Capitol Police blow you away?
The truth is the average American is about as likely to get near his or her leaders as the average Russian was about to get near Stalin. Even if you could walk up to one of our leaders with a gun chances are you’d get killed by the bodyguards long before you could get away. Even if you killed the leader there’d be another politician to take that politician’s place and little would change. Lyndon Johnson takes John F. Kennedy’s place did that really change anything? Lee Harvey Oswald of course didn’t live to see it. Note the security around the White House and the Capitol shows us how much faith our political leaders have in gun control if they believed it worked they wouldn’t have a secret service. Also ask gun control believers this, why is there so much security around the Queen and the Prime Minister in Britain (which has the strictest gun control laws on Earth)?
Then there’s the argument well the Nazis and Communists had gun control so they were afraid of guns? Can you tell me that the average Party Member in Stalin’s Russia wasn’t packing heat? My guess is that the vast majority of Communists and Nazis carried loaded pistols with them and a great many average people in Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and Saddam’s Iraq carried guns with them all the time that didn’t make those societies free. On the other hand some countries with strict gun control (on paper in real life on a per capita basis there are as probably as many guns floating around in Stockholm as in New York) like Holland, Canada, Great Britain and Sweden have been very free.
So what is the truth? Well liberty is an idea, an idea that only works when a majority of people in society including the leaders believe in it. If the majority of your citizens and their leaders believe in liberty you’ll have a free society regardless of the number of guns in circulation. If the majority doesn’t such as those in Iraq there will never be freedom.
Does this mean I believe in gun control? Well no, I don’t like the idea of most people carrying loaded guns (which most people don’t Jane and Joe Sixpack it seems are smarter than libertarian intellectuals they know that wasting their money on firearms doesn’t buy freedom) but I don’t think we need special laws or bureaucracy to control gun ownership. Average people going around armed would be a bad thing but a powerful police force bent on gun prohibition would be worse. Gun prohibitionists like drug and alcohol prohibitionists want to control average people’s lifestyles. Ruby Ridge and Waco resulted from hysterical libertarian gun nuts clashing with hysterical government employed gun nuts. Like drug and alcohol prohibitionists gun prohibitionists want to protect us from ourselves and our natures (while they themselves carry guns of course).
Yes, I’m scared of guns but I’m much more afraid of cars they’re much more dangerous than guns and kill a lot more people but they’re politically more popular. So why aren’t gun prohibitionists trying to ban cars or restrict their use? Unlike guns cars are supported by a massive socialist welfare state that deliberately and systematically killed off efficient privately owned rail transport systems while taxing average citizens to build and maintain dubious roads and highways. The silence is deafening.
So what about self defense? Well yes people do have a right to protect themselves, their families and communities from violent attack but at the moment I don’t think that I’m in any danger of violent attack. The average American is just as likely to be struck by lightning as to face a violent home invasion. Even if I was a basic pump shotgun - my great grandfather’s weapon of choice - would suffice for home defense and it’s legal and cheap and I could use it effectively without wasting several hours a month at the pistol range. Or what about hand grenades? They’re cheap, simple and effective ask any surviving member of the greatest generation what his favorite weapon was in WWII?
As for foreign invasion, do you really think an invading army that could overcome America’s military might is going to be afraid of Joe Sixpack with a hunting rifle? Of course not it’s a ludicrous argument and one that insults our armed forces and the brave people who served in them.
So what do I think of guns, here is what I think of guns, guns are useful tools and dangerous weapons but they are not magic wands you can’t guarantee your liberty by waving them. If you think guns are cool toys to own and play with, go ahead and play with them as long as you do it responsibly but don’t expect the firearm in your pocket to guarantee your freedom it won’t. Plenty of Germans found that out at Dachau and plenty of Russians learned that lesson in the Gulag.
posted by great one at 5:20 AM
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