[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Yep. That’s like saying that people are involved in the criminal aspect of the illegal drug trade because drugs are illegal, that if you legalize them, all that illegal activity will stop.

Wrong.

People turn to crime — any crime — for the high profits associated with the risk based upon illegal activity. Legalize drugs and all those criminals will not suddenly become law-abiding citizens. They will turn to other crime. And they will also figure out ways to stay involved in drug-related crime, because some part of it will always be illegal.

Remove all guns, and the criminals will still have them. They will simply be able to commit crimes without the interference of people defending themselves.

This guy is just another ahole who spent enough time rubbing the right brass knobs to get where he is and now he’s trying to polish the right brass knobs to get promoted to the next level.

Perhaps there is some truth to the Alex Jones reports that Obammie and his Commies are interviewing military officers and asking them if they would use military force against the citizenry if ordered to.

Sounds like this guy would jump at the chance.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yes, he has the makings of a proper jack-booted thug.

[vette6387]

“Sounds like this guy would jump at the chance.”

I think that there’s an “army” of civilians who would likewise “jump at the chance” to oppose him. The way that FUBO is winnowing down the military, they would not stand a chance against the armed populous.

[fr_freak]

Yep. That’s like saying that people are involved in the criminal aspect of the illegal drug trade because drugs are illegal, that if you legalize them, all that illegal activity will stop.

Your analogy is apt in the sense that criminals will be criminals regardless of their chosen field of crime. However, since you compared it to the whole drug thing, the other side of that analogy is that if you outlaw guns, plenty of otherwise law-abiding citizens will suddenly be made into criminals. Why won't those law-abiding citizens just give up their guns? Because they believe themselves to be free people, and that they have the right to own weapons for whatever reason.

It is the same with drugs. There are many criminals who use, produce and sell drugs, but there are plenty of otherwise law-abiding citizens who like to drink or get high now and then. You make all of that illegal, and suddenly decent people as well as criminals are now outlaws. Why won't those otherwise law-abiding people just give up their drugs? Because they believe themselves to be free people and they have the right to smoke whatever they want.

I don't want to turn this into a drug war thread, but I see the push to outlaw guns as springing from the same mentality that wants to outlaw drugs or light bulbs or cough medicine - a mentality that says that a grown man does not have the right to live his life as he sees fit, that he must be controlled for his own good. I think many otherwise conservative people have been conditioned to be more open to banning or heavily restricting guns precisely because these other legal areas have been the camel's nose under the tent, and now many people are completely comfortable with the idea of restricting individual rights in this way. All you have to do is ask yourself, would the Founders have tolerated gun control OR drug control? Would they have tolerated a government that thinks it has the right to tell a man what he can do in his own house?