"The Paranoid Style In American Politics," By Richard Hofstadter
paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/
The United States Of Paranoia
"The Politics Of Horror In Conservative Evangelicalism," '09 Outstanding Academic Title"
http://paxonbothhouses.
The "point" of gun control is not prohibition.
Nor is the "point" of gun control to "strip" people of their Second Amendment rights.
The point of gun control is gun control.
What Second Amendment Evangelists Fail To Understand About Their Opposition
What we have is chaos and carte blanche for white guys to shoot dark-skinned people because they fear for their paranoid lives.
"Why Black Men Don't Open Carry"
White Man Jaywalks With Assault Rifle. Guess What Police Do
Black Kids Get Shot For Their Mistakes. White Kids Get Psychologized
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/black-kids-get-shot-for-their-mistakes.html
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/black-kids-get-shot-for-their-mistakes.html
Dear Fred,
The "point" of gun control is not prohibition.
Nor is the "point" of gun control to "strip" people of their Second Amendment rights.
The point of gun control is gun control.
What Second Amendment Evangelists Fail To Understand About Their Opposition
What we have is chaos and carte blanche for white guys to shoot dark-skinned people because they fear for their paranoid lives.
"Why Black Men Don't Open Carry"
White Man Jaywalks With Assault Rifle. Guess What Police Do
Black Kids Get Shot For Their Mistakes. White Kids Get Psychologized
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/black-kids-get-shot-for-their-mistakes.html
Just as we control the promiscuous use of military machine guns, howitzers and nuclear weapons, so are other gun control issues fair game.
We control military machine guns, howitzers and nuclear weapons because we know people are not sufficiently responsible or "road-rage-restrained" to access these weapons without invoking unacceptable risk of outsized havoc.
As always, the question -- and it is always the same question conservatives refuse to ask, much less answer -- is this: "Given that a line has already been drawn "somewhere," where will the evolving body politic of the United States draw that line?"
Similarly, "everyone" is agreed that abortion should be permissible (if not sacramentalized) whenever "your" 12 year old daughter (or grand-daughter) is rape-impregnated by Willie Horton.
So...
Where else might reasonable people in a democratic society deem to set "the limit?"
The morning after pill?
First trimester?
Anywhere "the dark side" of the birth canal?
Similarly, since military machine guns are "off limits," where else might reasonable people draw the limiting line?
Consider this.
Six shooters did not even exist when the constitution was written.
By using the conservative argument that the constitution should be interpreted according to The Founders' "original intent," we discover that the only constitutionally-guaranteed firearms are single shot pistols and single shot long arms.
Concerning "Irish Justice" and the unenforceability of gun control laws, Williamson - in addition to being plain wrong - flaunts what Chesterton calls "the anarchy of the rich."
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
"You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists."
Although I haven't time to fine tune the particulars, gun control that "obliges background checks at gun shows" is not only enforceable but readily enforceable.
Just write legislation so that failure to conduct required background checks will result in the offending vendor's lifelong-forfeiture of his right to sell guns.
Dare I say it?
Bang!
Problem solved.
Similarly, devise legislation so that anyone who sells a gun without a vendor's license will be considered an accomplice to any crime committed with that illegally sold gun and -- bang! bang! -- another part of "the problem" is solved.
Conservatives are dedicated to the sophistry of using anecdote and "exceptions to rules" in order to establish new rules.
Dear Fred,
The "point" of gun control is not prohibition.
Nor is the "point" of gun control to "strip" people of their Second Amendment rights.
The point of gun control is gun control.
What Second Amendment Evangelists Fail To Understand About Their Opposition
What we have is chaos and carte blanche for white guys to shoot dark-skinned people because they fear for their paranoid lives.
"Why Black Men Don't Open Carry"
White Man Jaywalks With Assault Rifle. Guess What Police Do
Black Kids Get Shot For Their Mistakes. White Kids Get Psychologized
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/black-kids-get-shot-for-their-mistakes.html
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/black-kids-get-shot-for-their-mistakes.html
Just as we control the promiscuous use of military machine guns, howitzers and nuclear weapons, so are other gun control issues fair game.
We control military machine guns, howitzers and nuclear weapons because we know people are not sufficiently responsible or "road-rage-restrained" to access these weapons without invoking unacceptable risk of outsized havoc.
As always, the question -- and it is always the same question conservatives refuse to ask, much less answer -- is this: "Given that a line has already been drawn "somewhere," where will the evolving body politic of the United States draw that line?"
Similarly, "everyone" is agreed that abortion should be permissible (if not sacramentalized) whenever "your" 12 year old daughter (or grand-daughter) is rape-impregnated by Willie Horton.
So...
Where else might reasonable people in a democratic society deem to set "the limit?"
The morning after pill?
First trimester?
Anywhere "the dark side" of the birth canal?
Similarly, since military machine guns are "off limits," where else might reasonable people draw the limiting line?
Consider this.
Six shooters did not even exist when the constitution was written.
By using the conservative argument that the constitution should be interpreted according to The Founders' "original intent," we discover that the only constitutionally-guaranteed firearms are single shot pistols and single shot long arms.
Concerning "Irish Justice" and the unenforceability of gun control laws, Williamson - in addition to being plain wrong - flaunts what Chesterton calls "the anarchy of the rich."
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
"You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists."
Although I haven't time to fine tune the particulars, gun control that "obliges background checks at gun shows" is not only enforceable but readily enforceable.
Just write legislation so that failure to conduct required background checks will result in the offending vendor's lifelong-forfeiture of his right to sell guns.
Dare I say it?
Bang!
Bang!
Problem solved.
Similarly, devise legislation so that anyone who sells a gun without a vendor's license will be considered an accomplice to any crime committed with that illegally sold gun and -- bang! bang! -- another part of "the problem" is solved.
Conservatives are dedicated to the sophistry of using anecdote and "exceptions to rules" in order to establish new rules.
"The Death Of Epistemolgy"
One such "exception to the rule" is the unenforceability of recent gun control efforts in Silicon Valley.
Nevertheless, one failure (or a small cluster of failures) does not establish a New Rule.
At bottom, Williamson and his "terrorist pals" at the NRA are terrified that incremental progress is in fact do-able. Hence, their ferocious efforts to prevent ANY legislation that might demonstrate viability.
In 1996, the GOP, suckled by the NRA, banned the Center for Disease Control from conducting research into the effects of gun use.
Anyone this side of lobotomy recognizes this ban as a brazen attempt to stonewall inevitable scientific findings that gun regulation is essential to civilized well-being.
Admittedly, successful implementation of gun control in the United States of Barbaria will be a long, incremental process.
At the outset, there may even be paradoxical downside to gun control.
But "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Also consider this.
If we recognize that guns are constitutionally subordinate to "a well-regulated militia," there is nothing unconstitutional about imposing regulation on prospective gun buyers: such regulation is the equivalent of what citizens must already do when they register, inspect and insure their motor vehicles.
The Second Amendment
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
I realize there is no constitutional right to operate a motor vehicle.
But there is no constitutional right to unregulated firearm ownership either - as the proscription of "military machine guns" already demonstrates.
Nor does the 2nd Amendment guarantee unregulated sale of firearms.
Fail to register, inspect and insure (!?!) firearms and non-compliant gun owners will be put on the "Can't Purchase Registry."
Keep in mind that such a registry already exists; convicted felons (among other citizens) cannot own firearms legally.
The reasonable question that still needs answering is this: "Exactly who should be on the extant "No Gun Registry?"
And finally, to conjoin alpha and omega...
Yes!
Prohibition is stupid and counterproductive.
But intelligent regulation is smart and -- over the long haul -- both life-saving and injury- preventing.
(Conservatives are so regulation-averse and hysterically-reactive to any regulatory proposal that I hypothesize their inability to conceive any regulation that does not automatically entail prohibition/abolition. Keep in mind that currently more conservatives think Sandy Hook was staged by Homeland Security than the number of liberals-and-progressives committed to 2nd Amendment abolition.)
One such "exception to the rule" is the unenforceability of recent gun control efforts in Silicon Valley.
Nevertheless, one failure (or a small cluster of failures) does not establish a New Rule.
At bottom, Williamson and his "terrorist pals" at the NRA are terrified that incremental progress is in fact do-able. Hence, their ferocious efforts to prevent ANY legislation that might demonstrate viability.
In 1996, the GOP, suckled by the NRA, banned the Center for Disease Control from conducting research into the effects of gun use.
Anyone this side of lobotomy recognizes this ban as a brazen attempt to stonewall inevitable scientific findings that gun regulation is essential to civilized well-being.
In 1996, the GOP, suckled by the NRA, banned the Center for Disease Control from conducting research into the effects of gun use.
Anyone this side of lobotomy recognizes this ban as a brazen attempt to stonewall inevitable scientific findings that gun regulation is essential to civilized well-being.
Admittedly, successful implementation of gun control in the United States of Barbaria will be a long, incremental process.
At the outset, there may even be paradoxical downside to gun control.
At the outset, there may even be paradoxical downside to gun control.
But "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Also consider this.
If we recognize that guns are constitutionally subordinate to "a well-regulated militia," there is nothing unconstitutional about imposing regulation on prospective gun buyers: such regulation is the equivalent of what citizens must already do when they register, inspect and insure their motor vehicles.
The Second Amendment
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
I realize there is no constitutional right to operate a motor vehicle.
But there is no constitutional right to unregulated firearm ownership either - as the proscription of "military machine guns" already demonstrates.
Nor does the 2nd Amendment guarantee unregulated sale of firearms.
Fail to register, inspect and insure (!?!) firearms and non-compliant gun owners will be put on the "Can't Purchase Registry."
Keep in mind that such a registry already exists; convicted felons (among other citizens) cannot own firearms legally.
The reasonable question that still needs answering is this: "Exactly who should be on the extant "No Gun Registry?"
And finally, to conjoin alpha and omega...
Yes!
Prohibition is stupid and counterproductive.
But intelligent regulation is smart and -- over the long haul -- both life-saving and injury- preventing.
(Conservatives are so regulation-averse and hysterically-reactive to any regulatory proposal that I hypothesize their inability to conceive any regulation that does not automatically entail prohibition/abolition. Keep in mind that currently more conservatives think Sandy Hook was staged by Homeland Security than the number of liberals-and-progressives committed to 2nd Amendment abolition.)
"Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals"
"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"
"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"
What Second Amendment Evangelists Fail To Understand About Their Opposition
What Second Amendment Evangelists Fail To Understand About Their Opposition
"The Only Thing That Stops A Bad Guy With A Gun Is A Good Guy With A Gun"
"The Only Thing That Stops A Bad Guy With A Gun Is A Good Guy With A Gun"
Australian Comedian Nails 2nd Amendment Evangelists
http://paxonbothhouses.
The Number Of People Who Use Guns In Self-Defense Is Negligible
Australian Comedian Nails 2nd Amendment Evangelists
http://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
The Number Of People Who Use Guns In Self-Defense Is Negligible
GunFail: A Continually Updated File Of U.S. Firearm Calamities By David Waldman
Handguns At Home And The Scourge Of Suicide Among Young People
Handguns At Home And The Scourge Of Suicide Among Young People
Mom Killed By 2 Year Old Child Described As "Responsible." NOT!
http://paxonbothhouses.
One Heartbroken Mother's Plea To Other Parents: Ask If There's A Gun In The House
80% Of All Firearm Deaths In 23 Industrialized Countries Occurred In The U.S.
http://paxonbothhouses.
“Toy Guns Outlawed At Republican Presidential Convention. Real Guns Allowed”
On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
A discussion of Prohibition is long overdue.
--
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