Michael Moore: Guns for "containing slavery"

Independent ^ | 5/17/02 | Independent

[moyden]

Gun-grabbers are getting desperate.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Those with guns can dominate and enslave those without. I think Fat Mike is making the 2A case for us.

[Black Agnes]

Uh, yeah Michael, a six-shooter is really gonna contain four million slaves or even, well, more than 6; gotta reaload SOMEtime!. Can you say suicide wish? I thought you could!

[Poohbah]

Outstanding logic!

Yo, Mikey Moore...once you pull the pin, Mr. Hand Grenade is no longer your friend.

[El Sordo]

His ignorance staggers the imagination.....

[Plutarch]

Ruzh sez: "You know you're winning an argument with a liberal when they call you a bigot"

Mr. Moore reaches deep to come up with bigotry on the slave rationale. Knowing that is weak, he retreats to "crazy".

So I guess the rule is: "If an accusation of bigotry can't fly, the next accusation is insanity."

[Rightwing Canuck]

was just a frightened old man who couldn't talk in normal sentences

He was frightened because he thought you were gonna eat him you self-hating fat bastard.

[Djarum]

barf alert

[WhiteKnuckles]

First this:

So why don't they shoot each other? Moore can't provide an answer, "but it dispels the liberal argument that, if only we got rid of the guns, we'd have a better society."

Then this:

In the short term, Moore advocates a blanket ban. "We're not straight up here," he points at his head. "Until we are, it's not good to have a lot of guns around."

Not very consistent.

BTW - I thought this weirdo was an NRA member.

[Djarum]

"...[firearms were] what the white folk needed to 'contain slavery' for the final 25 years."

He conveniently ignores the fact that firearms helped free the slaves. Harriet Tubman comes to mind.

[Billthedrill]

"The early genesis of fear in America came from having a slave population... that grew from 700,000 to four million," he states. The Colt 6-shooter, invented in 1836, was cheap and portable, and was just what the white folk needed to "contain slavery" for the final 25 years.

This is entirely delusional. Not only did the history of firearms in the United States not begin in 1836, but its inception was European and had nothing to do with slavery. It did have a good deal to do with defense against marauding aboriginals Indians Native Americans uh, nature-loving peaceful indigenous populations, but I can see where a hardline liberal such as Moore might have a difficult time fitting that into his worldview.

In fact, what this is really all about is precisely that - Moore carefully selecting isolated facts, ignoring the continuity of history, and twisting them into a pathological tirade against those that the last line of the article shows the condescending bastard as having hope for after all. That would be us. And the hope he has is that we might someday be persuaded to accept his delusions as facts and become as smart as him. Right, Mikey, you betcha...

[elbucko]

"In the film, Moore visits Canada. There are 10 million homes there, and seven million guns. "And yet there are little more than 100 murders in a year in a nation of 30 million people."

Interesting observation. Canada, however, did not fight a revolutionary war to free themselves from the tyranny of the British. The stain of slavery is not part of Canada's history with its burdens upon both slave, slave holder and slave freer. Canada does not have an immigration problem with a southern neighbor that encourages its poorest, least educated, and therefore more prone to violence, segment of population to move north. No the Canucks haven't had our violent history with its struggle to keep our Constitution. I feel sorry for Canada having to be or Northern neighbor.

Repeal NAFTA and let them join the EU, if it will make them happy!

[PeteF]

Did I read that right? Moore is blaming guns for slavery?

You forgot the barf alert.

[spqrzilla9]

There is also fine historical scholarship by Clayton Cramer and Van Alstyne showing that bans on carrying concealed weapons had their genesis in disarming freed slaves post-Civil War.

[isthisnickcool]

The guy has gotten rich via the spittle dripping from his mouth. Go figure.

[Virginia-American]

Actually, the first gun-control laws were part of the post-Reconstruction Black Codes. Moore should devote his time to closing the gun gap^*, a shameful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

^*Appr. 50% of white households are armed, but less than 40% of black ones are.

[NEPA]

In the long run, Americans need to create a different type of society – and stop electing right-wing governments. "I don't know if the film is too late for us," he sighs, "but maybe it can be a warning for other countries."

Seems to me all those school shootings happened on a liberal's watch.

[BADROTOFINGER]

His ignorance staggers the imagination.....

You can say that again. The gun control he loves so much was first invented to keep blacks from getting guns and therefore keeping them "in their place". I wonder if he included his own racist hypocrisy in a chapter of "Stupid White Men"?...JFK

[Tailgunner Joe]

[weegee]

...he is in town to talk guns and that – it soon becomes apparent – is not a subject to joke about.Today his new documentary Bowling For Columbine receives its world premiere in competition at the festival.

Bzzzt. Wrong. See the title of the work. Lottsa larfs.

This is an unlikely achievement in itself. Officially, documentaries aren't allowed, but the selection committee has made an exception for him.

No controversy. Documentaries deal with fact. This is pure "fiction" (B.S. would be another term for it).