Posted on 10/31/2016 7:08:21 AM PDT by rktman
Guns are an important part of American history, both from a legal and illegal standpoint. From the single action revolvers of the old West to mobsters with Thompson submachine guns, American culture and society have enshrined firearms into our national iconography. They are inherently complicated things, created with the latent potential to protect or to destroy. Beyond our national discussion of gun legislation, the possession of deadly weapons by regular citizens remains a more contested issue.
The far right and the far left are exaggerating and arbitrarily simplifying what is an extremely nuanced and philosophical question. I hope to reframe our current political discourse and put it into the historical, even global context of human violence. Instead of looking at statistics, which Mark Twain termed “damn lies,” we would do well to hypothesize for a moment. What place do firearms have in American society?
(Excerpt) Read more at info.umkc.edu ...
It is done successfully on military bases and posts.
= = =
Remember Fort Hood
If all private gun ownership had been banned, say after Columbine, anybody care to guess how bad things would be for us, right now?
Armed citizens are the “line in the sand” that government dares not cross.
Freedom’s safest place, as the NRA ads put it.
Pretty much more than ever
Interestingly enough...that was Richard Nixon's campaign slogan.
This touches on a God-given right as enshrined in the Bill of Rights by The Founders.
In other words, it’s nobody’s f***ing business except the human being who posseses them.
“Writers,” bureaucrats, “officials,” professional scholars, government hacks, and others of that ilk, can keep their GD opinions to themselves.
The implication of this question is that when government decides rights are no longer valid (or have no “place”), those rights can be denied. And the fallacy is that those rights originate from government. But the Declaration is clear: our rights derive from a divine Creator, and are ours by birthright.
So the discussion of whether guns have a “place” is irrelevant. We have the right to keep and bear arms regardless of whether they prove “useful” or “modern.” There is not — and cannot be — any utilitarian test applied.
But no human government can be trusted.
I agree completely that guns have no place in America - in the hand of a Democrat.
None of the gangbangers who are killing each other and innocent bystanders in Chicago, for instance, have ever voted Republican - if they vote at all.
Nothing freakin’ “Global” about it. Take your OWG garbage elsewhere.
Yes.
Next question.
Break into my house and find out!
Amen...and amen...
Anybody who misquotes Twain so baldly is a mis-educated fardel whose writings will be nearly incoherent.
As long as there are bad guys out there that could hurt me or my family then the answer is yes.
STUPID question. (no need to read article)
Now more than ever!
The second amendment wasn’t to guarantee your “hunting rights” it was to guarantee your ability to OVERTHROW a tyrannical federal government.
When, I ask you, has our federal government been closer to needing overthrowing?
STUPID question. (no need to read article)
Now more than ever!
The second amendment wasn’t to guarantee your “hunting rights” it was to guarantee your ability to OVERTHROW a tyrannical federal government.
When, I ask you, has our federal government been closer to needing overthrowing?
That question says yes!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.