Would you turn in your guns if...

[toivo]

There are are great number of anti-gunners who are reasonable and moderate.

Yes--but that doesn't include those who would frame the question as it is in the poll. Both answer choices contain an untruth, or at least a very questionable assertion. See my post above: "Do you still beat your wife?"

 

[rbernie]

With all due respect - not only is your poll flawed in its premise (as has been pointed out by folks far more eloquent than I) but I'm not much more fond of your goals.

We need to appease the moderates; demonstrate our social responsibility, intelligence, and concern for their opinion. In doing so we stand a much greater chance of earning their respect and support. Tell an anti what an idiot he is, scream "come and get em", and peel out laughing derisively... well... you've just solidified his resolve.

The premise you espouse is that there is some downstream ROI for having made a compromise away from what is, by our view, a fundamantal right. You seem to feel that winning the hearts and minds of the 'moderate' anti's is a laudable ROI to this creeping incrementalism, this appeasement strategy. But the ROI is always a sham; you've bought mercenaries and not allies. In the end, you'll spend more time trying to keep your coalition of mercenaries in line and mollified than you'll spend actually getting your base message across - that a human without the right to defend themselves and be secure in their person is not a free citizen.

Either you 'get' the RKBA, or you don't. Either you 'get' the right for individual liberty and responsibility, or you don't. Screaming 'from my cold dead hands' arguably doesn't garner much support, but I don't believe that it really has much negative impact, either. Until the 'moderate' anti's have some epiphany as to what personal responsibility and personal liberty really are all about - they're never REALLY part of the RKBA movement no matter what they tell you.

 

[Art Eatman]

Five pages for as irrational a notion as I've seen during the lifespan of THR.

Yuck.

Art