“Guns are a big deal. They are a big deal to those who have real reasons to hate and fear the evil acts that they can facilitate. And they are a big deal to those who, in a dangerous world, want the ability to defend themselves by the best means available. Barring certain people in certain categories from access to guns—when there is no reason to believe that denial would do any good—shouldn’t even pass a basic public policy interest-balancing test, never mind be allowed to stand under the Second Amendment.” – Brian Doherty, Do Gun Owners Have Any Rights Which Liberals Are Bound to Respect? [via reason.com]
True dat
I agree.
“While their self-image doesn’t permit them to see it…”
And BINGO…..here we have it. The haters truly do see oranges where everyone else, and I do mean EVERYONE, sees bananas. This also explains their seething vitriol towards entirely peaceful people who happen to be human beings just like them.
I’ve said for a long time, and always will, that the single fundamental difference in this whole thing is that the haters are trying to control other people, trying to tell others what to do, what not to do. That’s it. And IT HAS GOT TO STOP. Why, peace would follow like a storm if they simply agreed to disagree.
It’s just so obvious, but they keep right on going down the wicked path of destruction.
Tom
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people’s lives alone, not interfering with them. Selfishness always aims at creating around it an absolute uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognises infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it. It is not selfish to think for oneself. A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. It is grossly selfish to require of one’s neighbour that he should think in the same way, and hold the same opinions. Why should he? If he can think, he will probably think differently. If he cannot think, it is monstrous to require thought of any kind from him. A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man and Prison Writings
I see lots of gun folk post this quote. But I find it flawed because both sides of the argument could use it. The quote assumes the other side is not thinking, a statement both sides have used.
Correct.
The salient point is: “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”
Gun owners don’t go around legislating that non-gun owners buy a gun.
Yet gun controllers insist that laws be written to force us to live as they believe we should.
Regarding thinking, gun controllers rely more on feelings than reason.
Except pit bulls. Right, John?
I wonder how many gun haters have criminal records? If I can’t have one because of my Drunk Driving Charge neither can you.
Well said. If we followed this line of reasoning, all kinds of laws/regulations/restrictions would fall by the wayside, and rightly so.
Well stated
Outstanding article. All TTAG readers should take the time to read it. ALL people interested in the gun rights battle, from both sides for that matter, should take the time to read that article. Guns ARE a big deal, regardless of where you are in the spectrum (and how far to either side, or close to the middle that you find yourself).
I love Reason. This was a particularly fantastic article.
Indeed.
No. This would involve explaining the concept of “respect” and “rights” to a liberal.
Beat me to it. +1.
My answer to that question is.. probably not.
I read this article a day or so ago, and it’s a good one.
Short sweet and to the point.
Thanks for posting this article.
I remain positive there are people in the middle, coming to awareness from their brainwashing in college or hanging around their peer group in teens and twenties, who probably havent thought deeply about gun rights, but will and do start looking around, for a variety of reasons- most likely having been mugged by reality.
And having resources here at TTAG, like the tab on studies and stats, and articles linking other thoughtful writers and publications that speak to 2A rights, and the thoughtful discussion that follows, here in the comments, is what draws them in, and educates.
I dont know about all the rest of you, as to how your learning curve has gone, but I suspect I am an example of at least how some thoughtful independent or even “moderate democrats” might have begun, with limited information about guns.
About 2003 or 4o, when I was first researching getting a hand gun, I started reading a LOT, including buying books like the ones by Ayoob, Jeff Cooper, and reading some of the other stuff on the internet at the time. I remember reading Calguns and all the discussion there about AWBs and OLLs and how to do this and that to get around the rules, and frankly, I thought they were borderline in some cases….
So I took a basic class, got the gun, went to the range a bit, shot enough to feel like I knew enough not to kill myself and still hit the target, and put it away except once every 6 months. Then something came up- I forget what, but it occured to me I needed to do more- and once again, went out, did a lot of reading, got some very general training, shot some more, and practiced a bit more.
I still hadnt found TTAG, but some of the other gun blogs seemed a bit sketchy- I mean some pretty far-right seeming areas of the innertubz, and I am pretty open minded.
Its only having read TTAG now for what- 3 years, that I am understanding some of the arguments.
Now, compare me to the standard libtard, or worse brainwashed progtard. Those people have almost no hope of figuring it out, unless we lay it out for them in baby talk, practically- and only then when explanatory and gun friendly supplemental material from outside sources can offer arms- length credibility, for what otherwise seems like the deepest darkest depths of KKK irredentism here, to your standard special snowflake ObamaGirl or PajamaBoy.
But we have to try. Changing minds one at a time- thats how it works.