Posted on 03/30/2004 6:15:38 AM PST by Shooter 2.5
Why Did it Have to be ... Guns?
by L. Neil Smith lneil@lneilsmith.com
Over the past 30 years, I've been paid to write almost two million words, every one of which, sooner or later, came back to the issue of guns and gun-ownership. Naturally, I've thought about the issue a lot, and it has always determined the way I vote.
People accuse me of being a single-issue writer, a single- issue thinker, and a single- issue voter, but it isn't true. What I've chosen, in a world where there's never enough time and energy, is to focus on the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician -- or political philosophy -- is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center.
Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.
If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.
If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.
What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?
If he doesn't want you to have the means of defending your life, do you want him in a position to control it?
If he makes excuses about obeying a law he's sworn to uphold and defend -- the highest law of the land, the Bill of Rights -- do you want to entrust him with anything?
If he ignores you, sneers at you, complains about you, or defames you, if he calls you names only he thinks are evil -- like "Constitutionalist" -- when you insist that he account for himself, hasn't he betrayed his oath, isn't he unfit to hold office, and doesn't he really belong in jail?
Sure, these are all leading questions. They're the questions that led me to the issue of guns and gun ownership as the clearest and most unmistakable demonstration of what any given politician -- or political philosophy -- is really made of.
He may lecture you about the dangerous weirdos out there who shouldn't have a gun -- but what does that have to do with you? Why in the name of John Moses Browning should you be made to suffer for the misdeeds of others? Didn't you lay aside the infantile notion of group punishment when you left public school -- or the military? Isn't it an essentially European notion, anyway -- Prussian, maybe -- and certainly not what America was supposed to be all about?
And if there are dangerous weirdos out there, does it make sense to deprive you of the means of protecting yourself from them? Forget about those other people, those dangerous weirdos, this is about you, and it has been, all along.
Try it yourself: if a politician won't trust you, why should you trust him? If he's a man -- and you're not -- what does his lack of trust tell you about his real attitude toward women? If "he" happens to be a woman, what makes her so perverse that she's eager to render her fellow women helpless on the mean and seedy streets her policies helped create? Should you believe her when she says she wants to help you by imposing some infantile group health care program on you at the point of the kind of gun she doesn't want you to have?
On the other hand -- or the other party -- should you believe anything politicians say who claim they stand for freedom, but drag their feet and make excuses about repealing limits on your right to own and carry weapons? What does this tell you about their real motives for ignoring voters and ramming through one infantile group trade agreement after another with other countries?
Makes voting simpler, doesn't it? You don't have to study every issue -- health care, international trade -- all you have to do is use this X-ray machine, this Vulcan mind-meld, to get beyond their empty words and find out how politicians really feel. About you. And that, of course, is why they hate it.
And that's why I'm accused of being a single-issue writer, thinker, and voter.
But it isn't true, is it?
Permission to redistribute this article is herewith granted by the author -- provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its entirety, and appropriate credit given.
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A cheating Four Flusher will show his hand, with only four cards of the same suit, and the 5th card obscured in such a way that anyone taking only a quick glance will think it's a true 5-card flush.
Based on my 1950's Saturday morning cowboy show, I think it has to do with a person who cheats at Cards.
Noun 1. four-flusher - a person who tries to bluff other people
-Eric
Well I learned something new. I though it had to something to do with those awful 2.5 gallon toilets.
For political writings, he's a knock out. If you want to know how a libertarianized society would handle some of the weirded out scenarios the detractors throw at them, his books expose the detractors hypocrisy and dishonesty almost flawlessly. His Henry Martin books are wonderful space opera. If you are looking for pure poetry however, stick to Shakespear, Chaucer, and Poe.
Only during the primaries.
BTW, my son is a Libertarian. I guess I raised him right. ;) As long as he's voting Libertarian in Texas, it shouldn't matter that much but he won't vote like that during a close political fight.
He married into a dem/green family. We took their daughter out shooting before they were married and she loved it.
That goes for the govm't employees that lobby against Freedom also.
If they are that dangerous, why are we letting them back out on the streets? Once your punishment is done, you should get your Rights back.
Also, since recidivism DOES seem to be a problem for certain types of predators, doesn't that just re-enforce the idea that we should all take steps (ie; arm ourselves) to keep from being a victim? Who would a criminal fear more? A judge who sends them to Club Fed? Or the angry homeowner armed with a 12 gauge at point blank range?
80 million gun owners broke no laws yesterday. Vanishingly few will break any law of any type today. Why punish them or treat them like criminals?
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