If you’re anything like me, you’ve recently found yourself on the receiving end of many questionable claims about America’s unique problem with firearms. Maybe it’s the “good guy with a gun” argument or the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” claim. These are important and prominent arguments to engage with, but as I’ve delved into them, I’ve found deeper, even more flawed stories underpinning the gun rights camp: claims that have gone largely unchecked in the public square. Today, I take on three of those myths.
So this should have been named “Three things I don’t believe about guns” Number 1 is just false. The single time the Supreme Court made a judgement about the 2nd Amendment it ruled that it is indeed an individual right. And your opinion about number 3 has data (Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc) that would suggest otherwise.
I’m with you on all of these points. We are definitely in a strange situation here and these are definitely big reasons why we got to where we are. I’m all for gun control, and we definitely need to start doing something on the state or federal level to help change the gun culture. Even if these laws do little now they might help move the needle slowly in the right direction. But I’m not sure why I’m still not convinced that anything that you mentioned is wrong in any way. Let me see if I can articulate why, I’m just now going to think out loud so I might be completely wrong.
When I hear arguments against republicans or the NRA or conservative judges, on this and other topics like abortion, everyone always starts with the fact that somehow one group or another got organized and changed the way the laws work or how people think about it. Is this not how this country is supposed to work? Is that not how all democracies are supposed to work?
At the end of the day the civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights movements did the same thing. They got together, organized and showed the country why they thought we should change the way the laws work and how these topics are viewed by the people. I just see all these myths as challenges that pro gun control people need to be better at tackling and convincing the people to elect representatives that will change the laws or appoint judges that will view things a different way.
All movements start with the people. There are definitely forces in the system that work against the majority, but those are there for a reason. It should be hard for the majority to get their way. The democrats have to get better at working the system because on topics like gun control and abortion the majority is with them. They also need to be better with their message to the people that should be electing them. That is my whole issue with the crazy progressives that have become the achilles heel in the Democratic Party with their crazy unintelligible slogans that turn people off. It’s not the fault of the people or the laws or the groups that manage to get their reforms passed despite their numbers in polls. It is the fault of the other side for not making better arguments and playing the game properly, no?
I’m going to have to reread this and see if I made any sense or if I’m just crazy. Look forward to everyone’s comments.
So this should have been named “Three things I don’t believe about guns” Number 1 is just false. The single time the Supreme Court made a judgement about the 2nd Amendment it ruled that it is indeed an individual right. And your opinion about number 3 has data (Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc) that would suggest otherwise.
I’m with you on all of these points. We are definitely in a strange situation here and these are definitely big reasons why we got to where we are. I’m all for gun control, and we definitely need to start doing something on the state or federal level to help change the gun culture. Even if these laws do little now they might help move the needle slowly in the right direction. But I’m not sure why I’m still not convinced that anything that you mentioned is wrong in any way. Let me see if I can articulate why, I’m just now going to think out loud so I might be completely wrong.
When I hear arguments against republicans or the NRA or conservative judges, on this and other topics like abortion, everyone always starts with the fact that somehow one group or another got organized and changed the way the laws work or how people think about it. Is this not how this country is supposed to work? Is that not how all democracies are supposed to work?
At the end of the day the civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights movements did the same thing. They got together, organized and showed the country why they thought we should change the way the laws work and how these topics are viewed by the people. I just see all these myths as challenges that pro gun control people need to be better at tackling and convincing the people to elect representatives that will change the laws or appoint judges that will view things a different way.
All movements start with the people. There are definitely forces in the system that work against the majority, but those are there for a reason. It should be hard for the majority to get their way. The democrats have to get better at working the system because on topics like gun control and abortion the majority is with them. They also need to be better with their message to the people that should be electing them. That is my whole issue with the crazy progressives that have become the achilles heel in the Democratic Party with their crazy unintelligible slogans that turn people off. It’s not the fault of the people or the laws or the groups that manage to get their reforms passed despite their numbers in polls. It is the fault of the other side for not making better arguments and playing the game properly, no?
I’m going to have to reread this and see if I made any sense or if I’m just crazy. Look forward to everyone’s comments.