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LadyEllen -> RE: Gun Lovers ... Some Facts for those who think you should give them up. (11/30/2008 8:19:27 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: subrob1967
quote:
ORIGINAL: susie
Personally sat over here on the other side of the Atlantic it always amuses me the lengths some people go to in justifying the ownership of an item specifically designed to kill people.
Living on this side of the pond, it always amuses me the lengths some people go in justifying their total dependence on a nanny government, who watches their every move on cctv.
I'll keep my guns, you can keep Big Brother, OK?
Personally, sat on the same side of the Atlantic as Susie, it simply amazes me that so many people who have never even seen a real gun in real life, let alone touched one or used one, can be so expert in the field that they feel able to comment on the matter at all.
What it comes down to ultimately is whether people can be trusted to be responsible for themselves and those around them. The UK view for many years now has been that people must be treated equally, which in terms of their personal responsibility (and much else) means that the whole must be measured by reference to the lowest measure in that population - in this instance the most irresponsible, the most childish, the most foolish.
Clearly it would be stupid to allow irresponsible, childish and foolish people to have a firearm - therefore all must be prevented from such possession. In effect we are all judged incompetent, without any reference to the evidence of our personal conduct and demeanour. That in ten years of highly enjoyable ownership of a firearm I was never found to be irresponsible, childish or foolish with it is not to be considered; I am guilty, because I am equal to the rest, who are of course all stupid for fear of elevating one above another. The same sort of reasoning lies behind the growth of our police state - for all subjects are guilty, being equal to the criminal minority, unless it can be proven otherwise in each instance.
More worrying though is the attitude the British public exhibit. In this instance there is absolute abject terror regarding guns, absolute suspicion of psychopathology of anyone speaking in favour of gun ownership - based not on experience, but on ignorance of what a gun is and what a gun does. A gun doesnt do anything of its own accord - it requires someone to hold it and shoot it for it to achieve the ends which are so feared. More widely then, this paranoia must be seen to be in relation to other people, not the instruments they may or may not be permitted to own.
Indeed, we are all in absolute abject terror of one another, we each suspect psychopathology in others, we live in fear. And this should not be surprising, since after all we have been well educated to believe so by a system that says that every one of us is irresponsible, childish and foolish - who then can we trust? No one - except nanny who is there to look out for us.
This transfer of personal responsibility to the state is deeply dangerous. This trust in the powers that be, in full knowledge of our own equality of stupidity is leading us willingly to a situation of abysmal subjection every bit as bad as the government oppression that Americans in fear of their rights to firearms fear - except in this instance there will be no need for such oppression; the cattle after all follow willingly to Animal Farm.
All in all then, this is not at all about guns per se. It is about whether we are citizens or subjects. It is about whether we apathetically submit to the powers that be in denying us our rights in the name of our perceived security under nanny's watch, or we choose to be free and to face up to our personal responsibility for our actions.
E
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