...I think now more than ever, individual rights need to be protected. People want the government to step in and compel action of the opposite side/tribe. That’s dangerous. If the government compels action, it better be for the best reason of all-time, agreed upon by a vast majority of the citizenry.
People want protests shut down because there is looting a few blocks away. That’s not the protesters problem. People want gun rights limited because of criminals. Again, not the law-abiding gun owners problem. Those are law enforcement issues, not individual rights issues. If I die in a plane crash from a hijacker, I don’t want it affect anyone’s future travel plans or travel comfort. If my child gets gunned down at a school, I don’t want my neighbors AK taken away. That’s ridiculous.
Liberties > feelings. Everytime. Born in America 22 year old Muslim kid, child of parents from whatever middle eastern country. Dresses the part. Lives in an integrated neighborhood where hate crimes are visited upon minorities. He’s in college. Never had a criminal record. Maybe a speeding ticket or two. His right to pass a background check and conceal carry as an American citizen must be protected. News wants you to believe he’s a suicide bomber in the making.
Black kid grows up in east LA. Stays out of trouble. Caught drinking at 17. No other crimes. Say he got busted with a joint and did community service, slap on the wrist. Great grades. Now he’s 21 at community college, but still comes home to a crap neighborhood. Dresses the part, sags a little, headphones on with rap music. Takes martial arts classes and decides he needs to get a gun, learn the ins-and-outs of concealed carry and get a permit. You may not like where he lives or how he looks, but his legal right to defend himself and his family > than your feelings about him and his situation and his imagined threat to you.
These may look like anecdotal situations, but I can guarantee you, this is the norm. And I minimized the crimes. Which don’t matter if your pass the background check, does it? I got in tons of trouble as a juvenile, smoked weed until I was 30. Got one DUI at 28. Several suspended license tickets because I went to college 2 hours from where I worked on the weekends and where my girlfriend at the time lived. Lots of run-ins. But nothing violent. I’m now 48. Guaranteed, if you enumerate the events of my life without context, a few out of 10 people would not want me to have a gun. Too bad. People aren’t perfect. There’s barely, maybe a few situations that justify seizing of someone’s constitutional rights. Yet it’s done, or threatened to be done, constantly based off of one group not liking another. Horrific. Our leadership is to blame. I see no color. I see no right and no left in this. Both sides want to control the other and compel their action in different ways, with different motives. Same result. This erases legitimacy of almost any argument that stems from either platform.
*rant complete