Posted on 12/10/2015 1:51:48 PM PST by servo1969
Ban guns. All guns. Get rid of guns in homes, and on the streets, and, as much as possible, on police. Not just because of San Bernardino, or whichever mass shooting may pop up next, but also not not because of those. Don't sort the population into those who might do something evil or foolish or self-destructive with a gun and those who surely will not. As if this could be known—as if it could be assessed without massively violating civil liberties and stigmatizing the mentally ill. Ban guns! Not just gun violence. Not just certain guns. Not just already-technically-illegal guns. All of them.
I used to refer to my position on this issue as being in favor of gun control. Which is true, except that "gun control" at its most radical still tends to refer to bans on certain weapons and closing loopholes. The recent New York Times front-page editorial, as much as it infuriated some, was still too tentative. "Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership," the paper argued, making the case for "reasonable regulation," nothing more. Even the rare ban-guns arguments involve prefacing and hedging and disclaimers. "We shouldn't ‘take them away' from people who currently own them, necessarily," writes Hollis Phelps in Salon. Oh, but we should.
I say this not to win some sort of ideological purity contest, but because banning guns urgently needs to become a rhetorical and conceptual possibility. The national conversation needs to shift from one extreme - an acceptance, ranging from complacent to enthusiastic, of an individual right to own guns—to another, which requires people who are not politicians to speak their minds. And this will only happen if the Americans who are quietly convinced that guns are terrible speak out.
Their wariness, as far as I can tell, comes from two issues: a readiness to accept the Second Amendment as a refutation, and a reluctance to impose "elite" culture on parts of the country where guns are popular. (There are other reasons as well, not least a fear of getting shot.) And there's the extent to which it's just so ingrained that banning guns is impossible, legislatively and pragmatically, which dramatically weakens the anti-gun position.
The first issue shouldn't be so complicated. It doesn't take specialized expertise in constitutional law to understand that current U.S. gun law gets its parameters from Supreme Court interpretations of the Second Amendment. But it's right there in the First Amendment that we don't have to simply nod along with what follows. That the Second Amendment has been liberally interpreted doesn't prevent any of us from saying it's been misinterpreted, or that it should be repealed.
When you find yourself assuming that everyone who has a more nuanced (or just pro-gun) argument is simply better read on the topic, remember that opponents of abortion aren't wondering whether they should have a more nuanced view of abortion because of Roe v. Wade. They're not keeping their opinions to themselves until they've got a term paper's worth of material proving that they've studied the relevant case law.
Then there is the privilege argument. If you grew up somewhere in America where gun culture wasn't a thing (as is my situation; I'm an American living in Canada), or even just in a family that would have never considered gun ownership, you'll probably be accused of looking down your nose at gun culture. As if gun ownership were simply a cultural tradition to be respected, and not, you know, about owning guns. Guns… I mean, must it really be spelled out what's different? It's absurd to reduce an anti-gun position to a snooty aesthetic preference.
There's also a more progressive version of this argument, and a more contrarian one, which involves suggesting that an anti-gun position is racist, because crackdowns on guns are criminal-justice interventions. Progressives who might have been able to brush off accusations of anti-rural-white classism may have a tougher time confronting arguments about the disparate impact gun control policies can have on marginalized communities.
These, however, are criticisms of certain tentative, insufficient gun control measures—the ones that would leave small-town white families with legally-acquired guns well enough alone, allowing them to shoot themselves or one another and to let their guns enter the general population.
Ban Guns, meanwhile, is not discriminatory in this way. It's not about dividing society into "good" and "bad" gun owners. It's about placing gun ownership itself in the "bad" category. It's worth adding that the anti-gun position is ultimately about police not carrying guns, either. That could never happen, right? Well, certainly not if we keep on insisting on its impossibility.
Ask yourself this: Is the pro-gun side concerned with how it comes across? More to the point: Does the fact that someone opposes gun control demonstrate that they're culturally sensitive to the concerns of small-town whites, as well as deeply committed to fighting police brutality against blacks nationwide? I'm going to go with no and no on these. (The NRA exists!)
On the pro-gun-control side of things, there's far too much timidity. What's needed to stop all gun violence is a vocal ban guns contingent. Getting bogged down in discussions of what's feasible is keeps what needs to happen—no more guns—from entering the realm of possibility. Public opinion needs to shift. The no-guns stance needs to be an identifiable place on the spectrum, embraced unapologetically, if it's to be reckoned with.
Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a writer living in Toronto. She is writing a book with St. Martin's Press about the idea of privilege (2017).
What a maroon!
Think it would do any good to tell this woman that murder was not invented at the same time as gunpowder?
I hope Phoebe stays in Canada-we have too many lunatics here as it is...
Move to France as gun control really works there.
PHOEBE MALTZ BOVY? WTF is a “PHOEBE MALTZ BOVY?”
Stupid people like Feeble Schmaltz Bovine?
I mean, she really is one of those barking moonbats whom you want to ask, “What planet are you from, anyway?”
Forty years ago she would have fit in well with the Khmer Rouge.
*********************
LOL!
Oh Boy, Oh Boy!!! I'm going to Amazon right now so I can reserve a copy of "The Book of Butthurt."
She claims to be an American but chooses to live in Canada, espouses non-American ideas, and simply can't wrap her mind around the concept of freedom. I'd say the "American" part of her ran down her daddy's leg...
Just when the world starts to get more dangerous, the left wants to take away everyone’s main protection using. She is scared to death, that is why she goes for the utopian, totally impossible pie in the sky solution. If she thinks the gangs or terrorists or mob is giving up their guns she is cettifiable. The only people that will are the half of white people that still believe in the GOPe.
It must really pain this air head to know that our next president carries a gun.
Liberals screwed up Canada and Guns and now they’re back
Mr. Cuomo, speaking on WGDJ-AM, said:'Confiscation could be an option.' http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/nyregion/cuomo-says-he-will-outline-gun-measures-next-month.html?_r=1&;
MSNBC' Ed Schultz Talks Gun 'Confiscation' http://newsbusters.org/blogs/dan-gainor/2012/12/16/msnbc-s-ed-schultz-talks-gun-confiscation
OBAMA ENDORSES AUSTRALIAN-STYLE GUN CONFISCATION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKSvxz5LHHw
Clinton: Australian-Style Gun Control 'Worth Considering' for U.S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JctBYrIaKvY
Yes, They Want to Take Your Guns Away http://thebea.st/1HmJOfM
A gun-free society http://wapo.st/1LrJxz3
Clinton Announces Massive Gun Control Plan http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/16/clinton-announces-massive-gun-control-plan/
So much for them trying to pretend to be reasonable with incremental steps to Confiscation
Who’s Phoebe Matza Ball?
She’s in Canada.
Canada has a _higher_ per-capita gun ownership rate than the USA.
better yet..... ban phoebe
she is not really an asset to America
If I tried to make up a name that screamed Flamin' psychopathic Lib I couldn't come up with a better one in a million years.
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