If you’ve read my posts carefully, you’ll see that I’ve never advocated an extremist political position. Rather, I’ve consistently railed against extremism and self-righteousness.
Folks here attack Creationists for self-righteously elevating their personal belief that the Universe was created 6,000 years ago to the equivalent of conclusively demonstrated scientific theory. Inevitably, the Creationists respond with the charges that the scientific viewpoint is inherently anti-religious. Such a respose being obvious bullshit, they rarely last more than a few weeks. When I confronted jenkinsfan and CalifBoomer on such obvious self-righteousness, I got a standing ovation.
When I point out that Libertarians and gun advocates display exactly the same sort of behavior, elevating their personal political beliefs to the state of irrefutable objective truth, I receive an avalanche of imprecations against my character, intelligence and judgement, including “intellectually arrogant” and “idiot”.
Look carefully at my posts. All I have ever argued against are the ideas that the Libertarian non-coercion principle is intrinsic universal truth, and that unrestricted private gun ownership is the only way to preserve civilization. I have asserted, sometimes forcefully, sometimes sarcastically, that these absolutist and self-righteous positions must be abandoned before any meaningful debate can take place.
Look at an assertion in this very thread:
Is this poster arguing for a disorganized police force? None at all? Just round up some guys from the street, give 'em some guns and say "go catch yourself some criminals? (These are, of course, rhetorical questions; I don’t really think he means that). I’m uncertain as to his point. But it seems he’s objecting to an organized, professionally trained and civilian controlled police force; y’all think I’m losing it?
I know of at least one instance, never contradicted by a single gun owner, of a poster (obviously rhetorically) threatening treason and insurrection if his and other gun owners’ absolute rights were infringed upon.
Do I personally believe guns are categorically bad? Yes. Am I willing to go to the mat to have them all confiscated tomorrow? No. I want to see some measure of real protection against, for instance, any yahoo with a few hundred dollars in his pocket purchasing sophisticated weapons at a gun show without doing much more than flashing an ID. I think Christianity (with apologies) is pretty stupid too, but I have no desire to outlaw the practice or even to criticise its adherents.
To abandon the self-righteous assumption of the truth of these principles does not mean you must immediately replace them with the opposite. Milossarian says, “Gun control advocates seem to want more and stricter laws. Get rid of the guns.” Klaatu says, “Lets look at the extreme…, government mandated confiscation of firearms.”
But Klaatu also says, “Having said that, I have no problem with requiring a license to own a gun, background check, and certification/training. Especially training.” Here here! But the gun owners have to push for such reforms to have any chance of succeeding.
I understand that gun owners strongly oppose total immediate confiscation. Fine. I won’t argue that point. Consider it conceeded. Yes, some gun control advocates do want to see all guns banned and confiscated. Well, so what? There are more than a quarter billion people in this country, some of them are going to radically disagree with you. It’s a democracy, live with it.
Abandon the stupid arguments: Stop arguing that the police and/or the US government are your enemies. This is a democracy. The government does screw up, often egregiously, but anarchy is not a meaningful alternative. You have a vote, use it. You have Constitutional protections and a judicial system that bends over backwards, if you have the smallest amount of sense, to find you innocent. Remember, Randy Weaver was aquitted.
And let’s start talking about why many existing gun laws are not enforced. If they are useful laws, then let’s have them enforced. If they are stupid, unenforcable laws, or their enforcement is resisted by gun owners, stop using them as red herrings. Replace them with good, enforceable laws that protect our safety while allowing responsible gun owners to afford themselves the peace of mind they seek.
You do not have a God-given right to own a gun. You have the same thing that everyone else has: A particular self-interest, which you are free to argue. You are not living under the oppressive thumb of a Nazi regime, you are living in the wealthiest, freest nation in the world. And you do not live in isolation, you live in a technologically advance, highly specialized interdependent society where we all must depend on each others’ civilized conduct, whether free or coerced, to survive.