6/26/2008

Didn't take long

A relatively well-known liberal friend and blogger and I were having a little conversation the other night on the 2nd Amendment. I made the remark that liberals, in general, wish to ban private gun ownership. She not only agreed with me that banning gun ownership was a bad thing, she also said that a ban wasn't what liberals wanted.

While I conceded that liberals, "in general," may not wish to ban private ownership, after pointing out to her many liberal vocal opponents to 2nd Amendment rights, she started to see my point.

Well, it certainly didn't take long for me to find examples of this very point.

4 comments:

capper said...

For the record, I wrote that before the decision, as that I figured that was the only logical outcome.

I personally have two shotguns and a rifle. My concern is the ones that treat guns as more than a dangerous tool, but have a much more obsessive fixation on them. They're the ones that scare the bejeepers out of me.

But I still think it is telling how no one on the right thought to mention these sort of tragedies.

David Casper said...

And there's the irony in this, Capper. I personally don't own any guns and really don't have a desire to do so.

But I also think you may wish to pay a bit more consideration to the fact you do own guns and are not necessarily calling for an outright ban when citing such examples. It leads people to assume that the gap between the two camps is much greater than it actually is, and the last thing we need is more disagreement when, in fact, in all liklihood we're closer than a compromise than it truely seems.

capper said...

I agree that the gap is not as big as some would believe.

But when people show such an affection for weaponry, that scares me. Guns are tools, albeit dangerous ones, and should be treated as such. One does not go all ga-ga over a hammer or screwdriver or even a chainsaw.

What scares me equally much are the ones that are totally nonchalant about have a gun, loaded, just laying around where a little one, or anyone else, can pick it up and use it, usually with tragic results.

In the light of the fact that you cannot legislate common sense or mental health, I'm not sure of the answer, except to put strict guidelines on who can have a gun. Not a complete ban, mind you, but strict control.

David Casper said...

And I would agree that most sensible people believe strict control isn't out of the question.