09-06-2017, 12:21 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2017, 12:26 PM by Eric the Green.)
(09-06-2017, 12:09 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(09-06-2017, 12:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(09-05-2017, 06:13 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(09-05-2017, 11:20 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: I can think of more important rights than the right to bear a gun, like the right to travel, the right to change jobs, the right to refuse to do certain work, the right to make investments.... and the right to have consensual sex.
How many of those rights would you have or be able to keep without the right to bear arms?
People of the red persuasion, and other gun rights proponents, keep saying that. But this implies that society must necessarily be a barbaric, uncivilized, gun totin' wild west with no-one empowered to protect law and order and our rights. It implies that the red side has achieved its aim and shrunk the government to fit into a bathtub and thus rendered ineffectual. It's a rural mindset that doesn't apply to the majority of the population that is urban and suburban.
It doesn't imply that at all.
Rather, the argument is that without guns in the hands of the populace to keep the government in check, the government would become increasingly totalitarian.
"Law and order" and "rights" are not naturally aligned; they are often in opposition. Government tends to value "law and order" even if it means trampling on "rights". It's only individuals that value "rights". Without the power to resist government by being armed, those individuals will have no way to protect "rights" and they will be trampled on by the government.
Yeah, that's another crazy theory upheld on the right and the extreme left too. No, government is not held in check by an armed populace. How often has the supreme court ruled to protect our rights because armed men were standing outside with guns pointed at them? How many times has congress or the legislature voted to lower taxes and regulations, protect voting rights, or uphold the rights of workers and consumers because activists were pointing guns at them? No, the government and the police protect our rights. If they don't (and yes they violate our rights too often), then black panthers or militias do not straighten them out. And shooting them doesn't make them behave either. Only a politically-active population (and that means movements and not just "individuals") can keep our government in check. That's what's missing, because too many people vote for politicians who trample on our rights, or don't vote and don't speak up. And--- black lives matter.