Gunsplaining to conservatives

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

18. You're just not understanding the process

Objective: ban a group of guns --> pick a set of features --> name the grouping --> verify that somewhere someone has been shot by a weapon in the group --> start a protest, campaign or political action to ban the named grouping.

Assault rifle has specific technical definition. "Assault weapon" is anything a politician decides it is.

By all means please control the guns. Let me abdicate action and leave it to the government because "I'm busy and it's not convenient." Maybe "I'm not qualified."

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." - Daniel Webster, US Senator

I have no doubt that some politicians are actually earnest and candid regarding new gun laws. I am also quite sure that, for some, gun-"control" issues are merely rungs on a ladder leading to election, re-election or a higher office. The voters will decide who is in each group.

The single-minded pursuit to define, re-define and "control" assault weapons by some folks is a lie and a distraction. "Gun-control" is a myth. The only real control among people (short of places like ADX FLorence) is self-control.

The Dalai Lama: "If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times)

The politician's answer to that is to make sure obtaining a weapon for defense requires overcoming a number of hurdles, takes a longer time, costs a lot and includes arbitrary government permissions. The weapons permitted will generally be less efficacious.

I can think of at least one place that really should have been a gun-free zone, 300 Midway Dr, Kent, OH 44242.

The message of many legislators is that more rules and laws are always needed for any problems that confront the people. For the rule breakers politicians will always find ways to build new Occoquan Workhouses and maybe even have private operators so someone can make a profit.

{wiki}:Civil Disobedience (Thoreau) >> I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. - Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes….Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." - Thomas Jefferson’s Commonplace Book, 1774-1776, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in Chapter 40 of On Crimes and Punishment, 1764.