Henry Rollins on guns and "assault weapons"

[CoRoMo]

Small, small, a very small comfort knowing that he, at the very least, has come around on only a portion of the 2nd Amendment.

 

[Golden Hound]

Another thing, that I didn't even think about until now, is that the AWB represents an example of big-government bloated bureaucracy legislating people's lives in a really petty pointless arbitrary way. More than inhibiting gun rights specifically, that fact ALONE should make it upsetting to people like Rollins.

 

[acdodd]

Quote:
Who the hell is Henry Rollins?

I know, I know....Google. I guess I just don't care enough about celebrities to open a new tab....
He was the lead singer of Black Flag for some years. Long time ago.

I still never heard of him or the band and I still don't care what he thinks or says.
AC

 

[Floppy_D]

One positive to this thread (and by extension Henry's comments) is that I now know that I'm not the only Old Punk With A Gun on THR.

It's what happens when you outlive "Live Fast Die Young."

 

[Lucky Strike]

Look at it this way. He's demonstrated that he doesn't understand the PHYSICS of weapons. That isn't ignorance, that is a lack of education.

He's also shown that he does understand the THEORY behind gun ownership.

The second part to that, understanding WHY, can often be far more important to understanding HOW.

Teaching someone how something works is often far easier than changing someone's opinion on why it should work in the first place.

How is indisputable through science. Why is extremely disputable through philosophy.

I think this statement is VERY true.....Henry's already gotten over the "difficult" part of converting from a straight anti-gun viewpoint.

oh and count me in amongst those that grew up listening to punk rock (it's still about 95% of the music i listen to) who enjoys shooting guns and perusing THR

 

[Zundfolge]

I still never heard of him or the band and I still don't care what he thinks or says.
AC

That's fine, but frankly we already got you so we don't really need to find ways to reach you.

Its the younger generation that has spent their entire life indoctrinated by the government/union run schools and leftist MTV that I want to reach ... and its going to take someone "cooler" than either you or I to do it (and as much as we here all love The Nuge, he's just not going to reach the young'ns).

So poo-poo the opinions of celebrities all you want, they are STILL the ones shaping the opinions and beliefs of the next generation.


Also remember that Lenin referred to people like Rollins as "Useful Idiots". That meant they were two things, Useful and Idiots. When they stop being idiots they don't stop being useful, they just change to whom they are useful.

 

[withdrawn34]

It is also quite disappointing that he is naive enough to think that gun control works. He makes the point that assault weapons need to be banned because somehow they are more of a danger to law enforcement than existing firearms.

Tell me, why would banning assault weapons make anyone safer, law enforcement included? Yea, it wouldn't.

If that were true, we'd never see any firearm crime in Chicago and NYC.

 

[22lr]

Well another idiot out there, but again 90% of celebrities are a half load short of a full load.

Exception, Toby Kieth anyyone who destroys the dixie chicks, and writes county songs about sticking boots up terrorists a$$s is ok by me.

 

[Golden Hound]

oh and count me in amongst those that grew up listening to punk rock (it's still about 95% of the music i listen to) who enjoys shooting guns and perusing THR

Nothing mutually exclusive about that...the second amendment is about as punk rock as you can get. The guys who wrote it were the original Sex Pistols...stickin' it to the Queen and the Fascist Regime

 

[cchurchi]

Well, normally I don't let anyone tell me what personal property I can own, what freedoms I can have, or what tools I'm allowed to use to defend myself and my family.... But now that Henry Rollins has opened up his yap....

Nothing's changed....

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Quote:
Who the hell is Henry Rollins?

I know, I know....Google. I guess I just don't care enough about celebrities to open a new tab....

He was the lead singer of Black Flag for some years. Long time ago.

Ooooooh, Black Flag. Now THAT explains it... sorry, just can't get too agitated about some guy I never heard of, who used to be in some band I also never heard of.

Celebrities DO have influence however, as some have noted. Whether or not they SHOULD hold sway has nothing to do with whether they actually do hold sway.

 

[jahwarrior]

i don't care what rollins says. he is a "Liar", after all.

 

[bwana50]

He's right, none of us need an EBR. But with that said, I also firmly believe "shall not be infringed" means exactly that. We have EBRs just because we like 'em. Just because we don't need something is NOT a good reason to ban it. We also don't need big screen TVs, fast cars, cheesecake, etc.

 

[hankdatank1362]

Whoever said that Rollins was "desperately trying to seem relevant" hit the nail on the head.

 

[Golden Hound]

If you had any idea how many people absolutely WORSHIP Henry Rollins, I don't think you'd say that. He has a gigantic cult following. Half of the time you see Rollins mentioned anywhere in print, his name is prefaced by "punk god." Whether or not this is actually true, anyone whose name is commonly prefaced by "god" in any way is definitely relevant.

A lot of punk rockers and rockers of all kinds do see Rollins as irrelevant just because it's punk rock to criticize anything that's widely-admired, like I said before - but that doesn't negate his huge cult status.

 

[mljdeckard]

bwana50: You are in no position to say someone doesn't NEED an EBR.

 

[David904]

bwana50,

Nobody needs an AR15 until they need one. Then it is far better to have one handy than to try to scrounge one up.

 

[Golden Hound]

The way I see it, nobody would ever say that our military doesn't "need" their M16s. (Well, except for the anti-5.56 crowd, but that's not what I mean.) But these same people would say that "such weapons don't belong in the hands of civilians." First of all, they're really talking about ARs, not M16s. But second of all, civilians SHOULD have M16s! Civilians SHOULD be able to be as well-equipped as our military is, if they can afford it. An armed citizenry - that is what they meant when they said "militia" in the second amendment.

 

[Zundfolge]

bwana50 is absolutely correct.

His point is that too many of us buy into the "needs" argument when discussing whether anything should be legal.

The State has no right to infringe on our right to keep and bear arms just because we can't articulate a "need" for those arms (or anything else for that matter).

Falling into the false argument of proving you may have a need for something cedes to the government the right to outlaw something you have a clearly stated right to keep and bear just because they don't think you need it.

If you had any idea how many people absolutely WORSHIP Henry Rollins...

You also have to look at the kind of people that worship him ... these are kids that see themselves as staunch individualists. These are kids that when they grow up would most likely embrace small government libertarianism whole heatedly if it weren't for the fact that their guru, Rollins, tells them its okay to live under the power of the state as long as its not a "Republican" or otherwise conservative state.

The more we can get him to embrace true individualism and apply his skepticism of big business to big government, the more he will instruct a non insignificant number of people that look up to him to think for themselves and not accept the boot of government on their neck just because it happens to be pink or have a donkey on it.

 

[PTK]

Its the younger generation that has spent their entire life indoctrinated by the government/union run schools and leftist MTV that I want to reach.

Unfortunately, it seems that violent crime is what changes people. My little sister was absolutely against guns until she was the victim of a horrible crime. She now owns guns and knows how to use them, and she's a better shot than I am.

"Cool people" liking guns doesn't really change much, in my experience with people in the 10-25 age group.

 

[Zundfolge]

reference my 4 Classifications of gun control supporters


Most people are in "The Duped" group. "Cool people liking guns" opens their minds to the truth. Most of the reason they believe the lies told by the antis is because they come through the mouths of "Cool people".

 

[PTK]

I was saying that crime (again, in my experience) tends to turn the first two classes of gun control supporters (by your classification) into pro-gun folks.

 

[Zundfolge]

Yeah, I realized I misread your statement ... thought I got it all edited before anyone saw it.

The old saying goes; A conservative is a liberal that's been mugged.

Of course there's a corollary that goes; A libertarian is a conservative that's been arrested


However, going out and victimizing the entire youth population as a means of turning them toward the pro-gun side isn't going to work, and there are a sub-set of people that react VERY anti gun when they get victimized by someone with a gun by turning them into Hopolophobes (eg. Sarah Brady). Also, I was staunchly pro-gun long before I was ever robbed at gunpoint (as were a lot of folk here, including a majority that have never been victims).

 

[yokel]

Are significant numbers of today's teens and young adults really listening to Black Flag albums from the 1980s?

The entire purpose of the 2nd is so the population can resist tyrannical forces, primarily police and military forces (domestic and foriegn) if necessary.
So restricting the population to arms that pose no danger to such forces is contrary to the entire purpose of the right.

The danger posed to those who would be tasked with carrying out tyrannical orders of government by a weapon only justify its purpose under the 2nd Amendment.

Indeed, the Second Amendment was not put into the Constitution by the Founders merely to allow us to intimidate burglars.

This is not to say that defending against personal dangers was not an anticipated use for arms, particularly on the frontier. But these things are not the real purpose of the Amendment.

The right to keep and bear arms derives from our duty to retain the basic means necessary to defend our country and our liberty.

In our defense of Second Amendment rights, we must emphasize the fundamental purpose of the amendment. If we leave the impression that we think that the right to keep and bear arms concerns hunting and sports shooting, thwarting your general street-level criminal, and making sure Americans have the right to entertain themselves with guns, we will actually contribute to the false view that the Second Amendment is a historical curiosity.

 

[Golden Hound]

Are significant numbers of today's teens and young adults really listening to Black Flag albums from the 1980s?

Not really, but Rollins remains a relevant celebrity with a huge cult following - because he's become an "elder statesman" of punk rock, a political and social commentator, and to a lesser extent, has had an acting career, since his days in Black Flag.