Do the events in Ferguson, MO increase your support for gun rights?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am a middle of the road American with regards to politics: a fiscal conservative and a civil libertarian. I am a free market capitalist, who like Milton Friedman, believes in a strong social safety net. I think many times regulations do more harm than good and it would be better to look at changing incentives rather than trying to regulate behavior. I am an independent who has voted mostly for the Democrats since 2000, though I have voted for Republicans in the past when they were willing to compromise and did not deride science or the poor.

I have always tepidly supported gun control. I grew up in the eighties and the crime epidemics and the waves drug induced of killings in cities made me believe that guns were bad and that ownership should be curtailed. I thought that the hyperbole offered by my right wing friends about black helicopters, Ruby Ridge, and Clinton/Obama wanting to seize their guns was ridiculous. I like many liberals, thought government was mostly helpful and the whole blood of patriots stuff was nonsense.

Lately, however, I have been drinking the Kool-aid. Not about the federal government wanting to seize our guns, not about Obama and the federal government overturning the Constitution, I still think all that stuff does not survive scrutiny in most cases, but more about the state of the justice system in this country. When there is an economic incentive to lock up our populace in private prisons, is it any wonder we incarcerate more of our population than the rest of the world? When almost 25% of the revenue for Ferguson, MO comes from traffic and court fines, is it any wonder the police are behaving the way they are?

We have set up a system doomed to fail. The military industrial complex lobbies for weapons systems and uses media to whip up support for foreign interventions. Private prisons lobby for harsher laws and support public campaigns for 3 strikes laws and other ways to increase their profits while at the same time they support methods of disenfranchising felons and making it harder for the poor to wield political power. We also have increasing calls, again supported by moneyed interests, to cut taxes. Court fines, red light cameras, and civil forfeiture are increasingly being used to fund local governments, and the poor are mostly at the pointy end of the stick.

Watching the events in Ferguson: tear gas used on peaceful protesters, automatic weapons being trained on the same, police threatening to kill people if they do not peacefully obey them, the media being contained and arrested and cameras being seized, all of this makes me wonder if it would be better if the public was armed.

The real irony of all this is that many of my staunch right wing friends think that the citizens of Ferguson are criminals and don’t think that gun rights are really applicable here.

Anyway, what do you think? Do the events in Ferguson, MO increase your support for gun rights?

Poll coming.

2

I don’t see the link between the legitimate criticism of the US justice system and gun rights. Would more guns solve these problems? Do you think the problem of a police officer aiming his rifle at protesters would be improved by protesters drawing their own weapons? Do you envisage civilians waving handguns at cops to reduce traffic fines? Would more guns stick it to those military industrial complex types, forcing them to reduce their use of the media and support for foreign interventions? Would armed protesters get private prisons to act more ethically?

3

The events in Ferguson have no bearing on the gun debate. Apples and oranges. Looking for a fruit salad where one doesn’t exist.

4

I’m a liberal on most things, but I support the right to bear arms*.

Officer Wilson acted inappropriately, as did the FPD crime scene investigators and “riot” police. The FPD has 55 cops, and I don’t know how many screwed up. The ones who did were way out of line.

I don’t think more or less gun rights would have improved what happened.

*I’m okay with arming bears, too, if you’re into that. :wink:

5

I am registered as an Independent and I chose the last option.

I have a concealed handgun permit and I am in favor of gun rights. That being said, I also believe that some gun control is necessary. Violent offenders and those judged mentally and emotionally dangerous should not be permitted to own and carry firearms.

I do not feel that I need to carry a firearm to defend myself and my family against the police department. I also realize that pointing a firearm at a group of police officers is stupid and dangerous. Shooting at a police officer is even beyond that.

6

I voted wrong. I meant to say “I support gun rights, and Ferguson has nothing to do with it and doesn’t affect it.”

Except insofar as, if riots break out in my town, I want a gun to shoot the looters.

Regards,
Shodan

7

If anything, it increases my opposition to gun “rights”. In the scenario you’re proposing, we’d have an all-out insurrection on our hands in MO right now.

8

When it is safe to assume everyone is carrying, then it is safe to assume everyone is a threat and deserves to be shot. Especially when “everyone” is black.

I support taking weapons from the police. Not arming everyone else.

9

No choice for me as the qualifier taints the selection.

Anytime the answers have a reason attached, the poll is loaded and slanted if a plain simple answer is not on the list.

No poll can be fair or balanced IMO even with a thousand reasons attached.

Why was their no cookie with orange topping choice provided?

10

That has not been established yet, and may be entirely false.

11

I can’t imagine any connection between gun rights and Ferguson. Citizens have no right at all to confront a police officer with a weapon. EVER. Even if you are being harassed and think you are being unfairly arrested the only recourse is to calmly submit and follow every instruction given. You can fight the charge later with a lawyer and in a court.

I have a concealed weapon permit. My first response to any police officer would be to calmly inform him of my weapon. Keeping my hands visible and not making any movements.

12

More guns will just lead to more shooting. What if Michael Brown was armed? Even if he did not touch his weapon before he was gunned down, the mere presence of a weapon would completely change our view of the whole situation. Michael Brown wouldn’t have nearly as much sympathy if he had a weapon on him, regardless if he used it or not, and therefore the chances of anything changing about militarizing the police would be way lower.

I do agree that our country’s penchant for locking up people (of a certain color) is out of control, but giving them more guns would just make things worse.

13

This. It would just be used as an excuse to kill the protestors.

14

You realize that out of 9 choices, 6 of them are “favor gun rights” worded different ways? 1 is I"I don’t know", 1 is "explain below"and 1 is “this is stupid”. Yeah, had to go with “stupid”.

Could you try for a little balance?

15

I’m going with this one too. Whenever I hear gun rights guys now, I just hear “I want to shoot some minorities”.

16

I think the Ferguson protests pretty much destroy the tired old rationale “we need guns against a tyrannical government” line. Seeing those cops dress up playing soldier and sitting atop armored vehicles and aiming their automatic weapons at citizens should lead to the conclusion that they would win any battle against armed citizenry.

If the excuse for the murderous cop is that he feared that Brown might be armed, then not having guns in peoples’ hands would destroy that rationale for shooting citizens.

If we ratchet down the police weaponry and take away their unneeded toys, as well as have some sane control on what citizens and drug dealers can get, we might get this urban violence under control.

17

I’m good with this too. Takes me back to the Travels With Farley days. RIP Phil

18

I favor gun rights and nothing that has happened in Ferguson has changed my opinion. . . but, I don’t think “those people are a bunch of criminals.”

19

Yet many who support the 2nd Amendment claim that its purpose is precisely to resist oppressive government. Perhaps the intended meaning was: for white men to resist an oppressive government.

Recent events (not just in Ferguson) have swung me from neutral to strongly supporting gun control. Armed police are killing citizens, and often the excuse for police’s use of force is that the citizen is likely to be armed with a gun.

20

This. Except more like tennis balls and oranges.