40-82
Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2013
- Messages
- 527
This is what I sent:
To some degree I understand the anti-gun view. Part of it amounts to an idealized trust in government. Of course you're not foolish enough not to see the flaws in any government, but you would look to an ideal that it may be possible to achieve.
I see a limiting factor of human nature that you would perhaps not.
You may well see availability of weapons as a primary cause of violence. I don't. To me the greatest catalyst for violence is simple vulnerability.
You're also probably much more capable than I am in handling abstractions. I've often heard anti-gunners state wistfully "wouldn't the world be a better place without guns?"
That's a level of abstraction beyond me. Without a gun and both my willingness and ability to use it, I'd be long dead. It's good to be alive. Good enough, that I'll accept imperfections if it means I can live another day.
Some people who would disarm the populace agree with Chairman Mao's aphorism in his little Red Book "that political power comes out of the barrel of a gun" and they have no intention of sharing it with the people. The rest, I see as naive idealists. They may well live out their lives without ever fighting, but if so it's because hard men and women watch over them as they sleep.
There's this too: those who have willingly given up their freedom often feel great resentment toward those who won't.
To some degree I understand the anti-gun view. Part of it amounts to an idealized trust in government. Of course you're not foolish enough not to see the flaws in any government, but you would look to an ideal that it may be possible to achieve.
I see a limiting factor of human nature that you would perhaps not.
You may well see availability of weapons as a primary cause of violence. I don't. To me the greatest catalyst for violence is simple vulnerability.
You're also probably much more capable than I am in handling abstractions. I've often heard anti-gunners state wistfully "wouldn't the world be a better place without guns?"
That's a level of abstraction beyond me. Without a gun and both my willingness and ability to use it, I'd be long dead. It's good to be alive. Good enough, that I'll accept imperfections if it means I can live another day.
Some people who would disarm the populace agree with Chairman Mao's aphorism in his little Red Book "that political power comes out of the barrel of a gun" and they have no intention of sharing it with the people. The rest, I see as naive idealists. They may well live out their lives without ever fighting, but if so it's because hard men and women watch over them as they sleep.
There's this too: those who have willingly given up their freedom often feel great resentment toward those who won't.