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Aspen, Colorado is a liberal enclave. So it’s no surprise that The Aspen Beat columnist Glenn Beaton tries to have it both ways writing on the “debate” about guns. Literally. He divides himself into “Gunless” and “Gunny” and engages in a mock debate with himself on firearms freedom. It’s clear where Glenn’s heart lies: he’s an avid supporter of Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. “Gunny’s” defense of that position tells the tale:

“You see, the reason they want to take our guns is not because they hate guns. It’s because they hate us. They mock us as bitter clingers in rusty pickup trucks praying to our God rather than to their government while chewing tobacco, throwing beer cans out the window and denying a woman her right to choose to abort her child any time up to and after birth.

“You have to tip-toe and word-mince around every other demographic but there’s no name too vile to hurl and no action too extreme to take against a guy like me for the crime of working a lifetime, paying his taxes, raising a family, obeying the laws and trying to do the right thing. It’s open season on us. And don’t tell me one election will change all that.

“This is not a gun war. It’s a culture war. The gun-takers are willing to accept that their schemes to take guns away will never take guns away from criminals who refuse to relinquish them, because it’s not the criminals they’re targeting. It’s you and me.

“It’s a war between the Enlightenment and the Dark Ages. I have no illusion that my little collection of guns can defend me against the thought police and social justice warriors who’ve pointed their arsenals of totalitarianism at my head. I’m too old, too blind and too outgunned.

“But it’s all I have. That’s why I own guns.”

Fair enough?

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22 COMMENTS

    • Aspen is my second home. It’s also an alternate reality. Contradictions are a part of life in Aspen. How else can you square blinding wealth and alpine nature. Trust me, every major defense contractor CEO has a house in Aspen as does the founders of the most popular environmental groups. And we all raise champagne flutes together during brunch at the summit Aspen Club before skiing the rest of the day riding chairlifts that get their electricity from windmills.

      Go figure.

  1. Person A has guns, while person B doesn’t. Optionally, insert person C who is a deviant and wants to commit harm to person A and B. Taking guns away from person A in no way makes person A safer.

    • That’s not the point.

      Insert person D (how convenient) who is a totalitarian asshole hell bent on making person A and person B subservient to the state and bend to the will of person D.

      Now, person D is a gutless fuck in a far away capital but still wants to impose their will on person A at distance so they hire a bunch of other people (E though whatever, henceforth minions) to go and enforce the will of person D on persons A and B. Well, B is fucked right off the bat but this nonsense only goes so far with person A if person A is armed because those minions don’t really want to take a bullet for person D’s dumbass ideas or piss off a bunch of people who agree with person A (call them Type A’s).

      However, if person D can, by force of law, disarm person A who either complies because they are law abiding or is in a sufficiently small minority that the minions can grab their weapons (and probably them), all those minions have a much easier job and person D is free to do whatever the hell they please because there are not enough Type A’s to cause a big problem and their weapons supply is dwindling as the minions do their dastardly work.

      That’s the point. It’s not about person A or person B per se. It’s about the safety of person D and their minions while they happily go about doing whatever the fuck they want which includes using governmental power to abuse the shit out of both person A and person B.

      • “Now, person D is a gutless [expletive] in a far away capital but still wants to impose their will on person A at distance so they hire a bunch of … minions … to go and enforce the will of person D …”

        This is why I keep saying that Big Money will eventually win if we fail to produce overwhelming numbers of a new generation that embraces firearms ownership.

        Not only will Big Money hire enforces to do the dirty work, they will also hire lobbyists and politicians to do their dirty work. The combination is formidable when the Big Money folks literally have well in excess of $100 Billion dollars to pour into the fray if they desire.

  2. “I have no illusion that my little collection of guns can defend me against the thought police and social justice warriors. . .”

    But have you provided them the illusion?

    AND, did the hat come with a whip?

  3. “This is not a gun war. It’s a culture war.”

    That’s exactly what it is. And in this culture war, the enemy doesn’t come at us with guns. They come at us with billions of dollars, paid advertising campaigns and propaganda delivered by so-called “journalists.”

  4. ” The gun-takers are willing to accept that their schemes to take guns away will never take guns away from criminals who refuse to relinquish them, because it’s not the criminals they’re targeting. It’s you and me.”

    No truer words spoken (Or written Or typed. Whatever.)

    And he just hung a target on his own back by publishing it…

    • Nah. Beaton is a former attorney and current “guest columnist” who revels in sticking his finger deep into progressives’ eyeballs.

      • Nah. I haven’t read anything from this fellow Beaton before, but I don’t see him as a real friend to the freedom/gun community from this article. He tries to get some street cred by writing about some of the basic truths, like this is a culture war, and that there is no other demographic that is so freely and abundantly vilified like the white, heterosexual, christian, gun owning, traditional proud american.

        But then he perpetuates the lie that having a gun is useless to defend one self from a human predator, and that they are useless in standing up against a totalitarian/regressive dominated government.

        He is good, but he did say the truth, this a war, and in every war, there are double agents. Every double agent always tries to appear to be an ally and friend to the group they are trying to infiltrate.

        So if he is not a conscious infiltrator with the intent to undermine and ultimately finish the destruction of out constitution and our civil liberties, then he has a lot to learn about the efficacy of a loaded gun kept by the bed side in an easily opened pistol safe, or under a pillow, or to really understand that history has shown multiple times the ability of a well armed determined few successfully resisting the tyranny of a state controlled military, starting with the birth of our own nation.

        • I waited for the edit button to erase the bit about him being a double agent. Whether he is or not, something not to say without more proof, but the edit button didn’t show up after it was posted.

          Technology, it’s great, when it works.

  5. That was very well written
    I agree with every word he wrote
    Especially the part about it’s a culture war and criminals are not the target
    It’s you and me

  6. As the author of this piece, I suppose I should weigh in.

    No, the hat didn’t come with a whip. I had to buy the whip separately.

    Yes, Aspen is extremely liberal. But it’s a more interesting brand of liberal than, say, Berkeley or Ann Arbor or even San Fran. That’s because there are still a lot of old-timers with roots in farming and ranching and outdoorsy people who like to fish and hunt. And there are a lot of tradesmen in the vicinity — Blue Collar types.

    My twice-monthly column is now the most popular column in the paper. In fact, for the few days after it runs, it’s the most popular item (in terms of clicks) of anything in the paper, including the front page news. I think there are more cons around town than people sometimes assume.

    And this would not be complete without a plug. You can get on the free circulation list for the column by sending an email to [email protected]. There’s no advertising, no solicitation for money, no sharing of the list, and you can unsubscribe with a single click. With that, you’ll get not just the column for free but also a few additional tidbits of commentary that don’t make it into the column.

    BTW, this is my first trip to “The Truth About Guns.” Good site.

  7. No that’s not fair. It’s just a massive straw man mountain of bullshit designed to stoke the persecution complex so many christian conservatives have in exchange for eyeballs and publicity.

    As somebody who grew up in the sf bay area, trust me, the anti gun position is driven by good intentions and a lot of ignorance. They don’t want to enslave you, it has nothing to do with fricking abortion, or religion, or culture. They just see that murders occur with guns in the US at a higher rate than some countries that ban guns, think that settles the argument and nobody should have guns and the murders will stop or decline.

    They just don’t like guns because they’re privileged to live in a place or to have lived a life where their safety was never an issue. That’s it.

    I’m somebody who wasn’t that privileged, so i think EVERYBODY should have a means to defend themselves (a gun). Peoples opinions on the subject are shaped by their experiences. These people didn’t ever need a gun, so they think nobody does. The only experience almost any of them will ever have with guns is reading about the tragedies committed with them in the news.

  8. Pat Buchanan said it over twenty years ago. We are in a cultural war. For speaking the truth he was attacked as a racist, which is the normal response of the socialist progressive leadership.

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