Posted on 03/14/2003 5:35:36 PM PST by Pitchfork
In the March 11 New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar notes in passing, "Most Iraqi households own at least one gun." This comes as a shock to those of us who've been hearing for years from the gun lobby that widespread firearms ownership is necessary to prevent the United States from becoming a police state. Here, via the National Rifle Association's Web site, is Bill Pryor, attorney general of Alabama, decrying the "war on guns": "In a republic that promotes a free society, as opposed to a police state, one of the basic organizing principles is that individuals have a right of self-defense and a right to acquire the means for that defense." The basic Jeffersonian idea is that you never know when you'll need to organize a militia against your government. In director John Milius' camp Cold War classic Red Dawn, Russians and Nicaraguan commies take over the United States in part by throwing gun owners in jail. In one memorable scene, the camera pans from a bumper sticker that says "You'll Take My Gun Away When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Fingers" to a Russian soldier prying a gun from the car owner's … you get the idea.
The obvious question raised by MacFarquhar's piece is how Iraq got to be, and remains, one of the world's most repressive police states when just about everyone is packing heat. Chatterbox invites gun advocates (and Iraq experts) to e-mail (to chatterbox@slate.com) plausible reasons. The best of these will be examined in a follow-up item.
You really are an ego-centric dufus, aren't you. You think that because YOU can't think of something, or YOU haven't heard of it, it doesn't exist, it can't exist, and it doesn't even need to be considered? Incredible... and sad that someone like you is the head of a classroom.
There is no need to argue about the societal benefits. It is a guaranteed Constitutional Right, most stingently worded than any other in the document... or did you want to move on to arguments about the societal value of Free Speech and Freedom of Religion?
I can conceive of a situation where Clinton would turn the military on us.
Yeah jeremiah, if the sky were pink with yellow polka-dots...how would you argue that it is blue? Of course...'only for arguments sake'. What a sophomoric attempt at debate.
Unrealistic questions are a waste of time and bandwidth. Can you say disrupter??
I'd say the real question of this thread is how does one disengage a communist fool who asks nonsensical questions without looking like she is the last one standing on the thread? My guess would be for us all to leave at once and let the sounds of the crickets be her company. I for one am leaving.
How so?
However, most gun deaths are not a result of the activities of organized or habitual criminals. Most gun murders are first time offenses (drunken fights, domestic violence etc.)
I am 99.9% positive that's false. Every prosecutor or cop I've talked to, both pro and anti, said that almost all murderers have priors.
On the Michigan case which has been raised a few times. Pray tell me has Michgan closed its borders? Does it search cars for imported guns? Selecting a single state or municipality and predicating an argument on its failure ignores the fact that guns are transportable.
It's illegal for me by federal law to buy a gun from another state and transport it. I can buy a gun from Indiana, but then I would have to have it shipped to a local Federal Firearms Dealer, and then pick it up there.
What might fail at a state level could work on a national one. (a testable and falsifiable proposition)
Could......could fail badly too.
For those of you who are thinkers here is a question:
Which is more important to the maintainence of democracy?
1) an armed citizenry?
2) a disarmed government?
In a dream would, there would be 2, but that's a pipe dream. Govts that are disarmed are sitting ducks for their neighbors.
And armed citizenry is a BALANCE to an armed government. The citizenry isn't stronger than the govt, but they don't have to be. They simply have to make it MORE COSTLY to oppress the citizenry and fight them, and they will not do it, whether the cost is money, time, or blood.
And right now, we thankfully have the ballot box, so we do not have to resort to the cartridge box.
Bzzt. Another one wrong for the teacher. The Constitution has power, even when it isn't interpreted by the robed ones. It is THE law of the land, and those judges you seem powerless to see past have frequently made unConstitutional decisions (ever hear of Plessy or Dred Scott?), but that did not end the Constitution's power. The Constitution also had power in the years before the courts ever got to so many of its decisions on its wording. In short, your "of course" assertion is entirely baseless, illogical, and empty. I weep for your students.
Besides the constitutional questions, It's a waste of tax money.
Don't you know they are the equalizer between a 90 lbs woman and several 120 lbs attackers?
Estimates are 200 million guns, in 50 million households. This is back in 1991. Close. There are 280 million residents in the US, but I think some of those aren't old enough to legally buy guns yet. Thats why all expectant parents should be buying their little bundle of joy a gun when they are born. :)
Wellllll, duhhhhh. Do you REALLY think that the criminals will go for it?
It's truly sad that an 'educator' is SOOOO dead-set against learning/expanding horizons.
Oh how I wish it were true. I loath people like this. Their logic is defective, they do not understand what they claim to understand, and they turn their back on truth with disdain.
In essence, they are too dim to know they are too dim. 'It' will be back. :(
Oh my.. You mean that in the event of a breakdown, you know.. a REALLY, REALLY bad one, where 911 doesn't work... that we might need to defend ourselves with guns (gasp!) as opposed to laws, the "constitution" and other pieces of paper?
Say it ain't so...
How about that questionaire about firing upon US citizens?
Gotta love FR!
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