Consider for a moment the following website:
http://defensedistributed.com/
I am always surprised and saddened by the lack of sophistication on both sides in the "Gun Debate".
It is kind of scary.
Gun control is an extraordinarily difficult subject, it is resistant to any attempt to simplify the issue and the noisiest folks in the debates are usually those with the least to contribute. Somehow gun control has become a touchstone, an article of faith in the holy war between the defenders guns and those who wish to see them gone.
Pandora's box is open. The guns that are out there can't be called back. I am not interested in a civil war, so the thought that the government will go out and confiscate firearms is not one that I will ever support. But the truth of the matter is that there are too many guns out there.
I think that the folks who have guns aren't going to be giving them up without a struggle. I don't think that the problem of guns in the hands of criminals will suddenly disappear with the passage of a few laws. Crazy folks will still get access to guns that they shouldn't have.
The folks that think that passing a couple of laws and implementing some executive orders will solve the problem are deluded. Folks that think free and simple access to guns will solve the problem are deluded.
The horses are running away, closing the barn door may seem foolish, but there might be a horse or two left in there, we might want to keep them there.
3 comments:
I think it is an incredibly foolish item for the Democrats to bring up at the moment given all are other very real and serious problems of a much greater magnitude.
It is a little like if the Republicans were in charge and decided to ban abortion. Sure they might want it, but the very vitriol of the debate guarentees that not much else will get done. And both insues have the potential to bring a violent enough response that what could be viewed as an issue becomes a serious existential issue.
It's like going out and looking for Arch Dukes to shoot.
Hey, it's not like they want to bring up the economy, taxes, the deficit, or other stuff that they're supposed to deal with!
Like I say folks, both Tweell and Russell have good points. The gun control debate has become the abortion debate, has become the debt debate. It is one of the permanent and structural contradictions/weaknesses of our culture. I cannot see a way out.
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