Why is it that the Right Wing can’t seem to decide whether they want to keep the country safe from totalitarian government or whether they want totalitarian government to be the law of the land?
Let’s start with the gun nuts. As a former dealer in firearms and explosive devices I have known more than my share of gunners over the years. They are a paranoid lot, always fearful that no matter how tiny the regulation, it is ultimately aimed at taking away their ability to shred any man woman or child who stands between them and a cold beer. They honor the 2nd Amendment, usually being able to quote it chapter and verse and of course their excuse is that they need guns to protect them from any government that will seek to take away their freedom.
It’s a pretty strong position. After all nobody wants his freedom taken away. Course you don’t want to ask them how they feel about taking other peoples freedom away. That’s where the picture gets a little fuzzy.
I don’t think I’ll get much argument when I say that most gunners belong to the Right or the Far Right. But it’s the Right and the Far Right who are salivating over stop & frisk laws and it was the Right and Far Right who loved the Bush/Cheney doctrine that led to illegal phone taps, people held without trial and unlimited torture, and it’s the right and far Right who are at this moment pushing a new bill, approved by the House Armed Services Committee last week and moving to the floor this month that would allow military attacks against anyone the President wanted to hit and would allow unlimited detention of anyone suspected of any kind of anti-government activity. That sure sounds like someone has it in mind to limit somebody’s freedom.
So how come the gun nuts, who want to protect all our freedoms, are the ones who are backing all the turkeys who are trying to take those freedoms away? The only government in this country that will ever give them reason for armed revolt is the one they vote for all the time.
Now, if the only reason you feel you need to own guns is the protection of yourself and your family, I kind of agree with you, but when you feel you haven’t the capabilities to protect them with a nine shot handgun or a shotgun, then, maybe you’d be better off hiring someone else to do the job. If you aren’t up to warding off a burglar with a shotgun there is no way in hell you should be allowed to touch an automatic weapon, let alone fire one.
Dick Cheney’s single service to the nation was to prove how dangerous a weapon can be, when held in incompetent hands.
Oh yes, while we’re on this. If the gunners are so worried about protecting themselves and their families, how come they don’t want ANY restrictions on who can buy a weapon? Recent statistics released by the FBI show that 272 individuals on their Terrorist Watch List tried to purchase firearms last year. All but 25 were cleared to buy anything they wanted. This means those guys can’t get on a plane but they can buy an Uzi. Does that really make you gunners feel safer? Does it make sense?
How about the fact that felons and crazy people can buy anything they want at gun shows. Does that make you feel safer? Maybe if they restricted the sale of guns to those who were responsible enough to handle them safely, everyone wouldn’t need to carry a gun for self-protection? Or is that the point? If only responsible people were allowed to have guns, it would take away the excuse for every nut case who likes loud noises to own one.
Not restricting the purchase of automatic weapons at gun shows or large magazines for other weapons is an idiotic position but, it is hard to argue against it because you know that as soon as you bring logic to the argument, you will be beyond the understanding of the person you are debating.
Right now the gun lobby is so polarized that they don’t even want to ban the use of lead slugs for hunting. NO RESTRICTIONS is their war cry. But that’s brain dead. Lead slugs, especially in shot, pollute the landscape. Birds eat them, other animals devour wounded prey and ingest them; they in turn are ingested by people who are then poisoned by the lead. There are plenty of perfectly adequate substitutes available but that would mean someone had restricted something in the gun world and that is anathema to all fanatics. It’s pathetic, it’s idiotic… and it’s very dangerous.