Actually, I never said that defending them makes us look like insensitive morons -
I think I might have quoted the wrong person.
Yes we have to defend them. But the point I agree with Justin on, is we need to defend them to the fence sitters. Defending them to the antis is wasting the time we can be convincing the legislature that passing a ban on anything would be a bad idea.
The only people we really have to convince are those in the legislature. At this point, even if we can bring the fence sitters to agree with us, they are not going to actually ARGUE on our side, they are just less likely to argue on the other side. The arguing in this debate, as in most debates is between those strongly for more control, and those strongly against it. The common man is not who we need to convince in the short term, it is those on the hill.