"A Left Argument for Gun Rights"

[rambone]

This is a lengthy essay promoting gun rights from a "left" point of view. I don't agree with every point down to the "T" but hey, what more can you ask from an openly socialist website?

When you get to know some of these well-meaning -- yet economically illiterate -- socialists, you start to realize that many of them are not across-the-board demons like they are often presented. Many genuinely support of civil rights -- including gun rights. There is no real reason that their economic stance has to dictate how they approach something unrelated like gun ownership.

It is only through the Left-Right paradigm that indoctrinates us that certain economic and social stances must always go together. Its illogical.


Anyways... Perhaps this essay can sway some of your anti-gun friends.




The Rifle on the Wall: A Left Argument for Gun Rights | The Polemicist

 

[netsecurity]

It doesn't matter how much a liberal supports guns when they vote in people whose party platform is anti-gun.

 

[rambone]

Politics aside, it always matters. It increases the pro-rights culture and makes one less family set up for failure when the SHTF. It puts one less muzzle between us and civilian disarmament. They could be a few economic lessons away from becoming libertarians.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Politics aside, it always matters. It increases the pro-rights culture and makes one less family set up for failure when the SHTF. It puts one less muzzle between us and civilian disarmament. They could be a few economic lessons away from becoming libertarians.

I can see that. Thanks for the article... I'm hoping a few of my intellectual acquaintances 'on the fence' find this tantalizing!

 

[jrogers]

It doesn't matter how much a liberal supports guns when they vote in people whose party platform is anti-gun.

As we all know, every politician strives to fulfill every platform goal.

It's foolish to comdemn every Democratic candidate because their national platform is not supportive of gun rights. Blindly voting Republican or tossing your vote away by voting third party over guns in any but the most local of elections is party politics not thoughtful exercise of the right.

They could be a few economic lessons away from becoming libertarians.

I certainly hope not. I prefer knowing that my medicines are what they say on the label and that my food and drink are unpoisoned.

 

[rambone]

I certainly hope not. I prefer knowing that my medicines are what they say on the label and that my food and drink are unpoisoned.

Lets say we lived in a cataclysmic future without the corporate-controlled FDA. There are still ways to ensure quality standards. Don't buy products that have not been verified/tested by an independent 3rd party. It doesn't have to be done under the force of law, just don't give your money to irresponsible companies.

Besides, the more you get to know how the FDA operates, you will see that it hardly is a protector of the consumer.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

 

[Carmelbythecorn]

Lets say we lived in a cataclysmic future without the corporate-controlled FDA. There are still ways to ensure quality standards. Don't buy products that have not been verified/tested by an independent 3rd party. It doesn't have to be done under the force of law, just don't give your money to irresponsible companies.

Besides, the more you get to know how the FDA operates, you will see that it hardly is a protector of the consumer.

Freedom is a scary thing to some people. Many say they want it, but with freedom comes responsibility and that is where people leave the freedom train...for the "safety" of someone saying it's okay and giving permission.

 

[Bennettjh]

I stopped at "The 2A is one of the most radical statutes in the world". The last of the first paragraph.

 

[Jludo]

It doesn't matter how much a liberal supports guns when they vote in people whose party platform is anti-gun.

Didn't gun control legislation not even make it out of the senate because enough democrats opposed it? There are probably as many pro gun democrats as there are republicans who actually try to shrink govt influence.

 

[rambone]

I stopped at "The 2A is one of the most radical statutes in the world". The last of the first paragraph.

When you study the world, you realize that freedom is radical. Oppression is the norm.

 

[KLB]

I stopped at "The 2A is one of the most radical statutes in the world". The last of the first paragraph.

Why? It is a radical statute in the world. You should read the rest of the article. I think you took that one phrase to mean something other than the author intended.

 

[g00n24]

It doesn't matter how much a liberal supports guns when they vote in people whose party platform is anti-gun.

Mostly true. I have a good friend who was always into guns, but very "liberal" in the social sense. It took a few drunken conversations to convince him he wasn't a liberal, he was a libertarian...so I don't know if that counts or not. I think some people are just SOOOOO concerned about social issues they completely ignore everything else and vote for candidates who say they agree with their view points.

 

[netsecurity]

When you study the world, you realize that freedom is radical. Oppression is the norm.

Correct.

This essay is very long. Great points though. I think it needs condensed down to at least 1/3rd the length, in order to get more people to read it.

 

[MCgrease08]

I stopped at "The 2A is one of the most radical statutes in the world". The last of the first paragraph.

If you would have kept reading you would have seen that the author was pointing out that that is a good thing.

 

[Jludo]

Mostly true. I have a good friend who was always into guns, but very "liberal" in the social sense. It took a few drunken conversations to convince him he wasn't a liberal, he was a libertarian...so I don't know if that counts or not. I think some people are just SOOOOO concerned about social issues they completely ignore everything else and vote for candidates who say they agree with their view points.

I could see that, if liberals practiced what they preached in civil liberties and smaller military spending they'd be tempting. republicans are the same deal on fiscal issues. If just one of them practiced what they preached in moving the country in a non statist direction on any issue they'd have my vote.

 

[mdmayo]

If you would have kept reading you would have seen that the author was pointing out that that is a good thing.

Exactly correct.

While the article is a long read, it's extremely well worth the while. It captured many diverse viewpoints that I read on INGO every day and put them into a common frame of reference. One cannot just plant their feet, arms crossed and adopt the "too long, didn't read" or adversarial semantic attitude. Know thine enemy explicitly means making the effort towards understanding the motives of that enemy (“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War).

If One stopped at the first objectionable sentence of everything they read, INGO would cease to function overnight.

 

[CathyInBlue]

I found his arguments about how the mere presence of an armed citizenry would not be sufficient to keep at bay the largest, most massively armed military force the world has ever known to be historicly naïve at best and disingenuous at worst. Yes, a large factor in the ultimate victory of the people over the federal government in a federal armed power grab would be the defection from the military of a large (but let's admit it, ever shrinking) fraction of the body of military personnel the federal government would be using against us, but the author's arguments completely discount into insignificance the role of insurgents and guerrilla war fighters on home turf.

He also lets his Marxist flag fly high and proud throughout. He decries people he calls "banksters" for raiding pensions that truly were the property and raiding targets of the socialist (usually European) states he so reveres.

 

[jve153]

cathy, i think he was pretty spot on in the point of that part of his article. there would be, and it would be much needed, defection of the military from the .gov to the citizenry. like he said, it is not about who has the most guns to begin with, it is in the end, who are they pointing at. it made sense to me.

 

[88GT]

I certainly hope not. I prefer knowing that my medicines are what they say on the label and that my food and drink are unpoisoned.

The ultimate irony is that you don't know this.