Bigotry
That’s been a meme on gun blogs for a while. Because gun rights are civil rights and those who oppose civil rights have historically been viewed as bigots. I’ve said before that my only issue with the meme was one of marketing. I don’t think the meme is effective with your average white people.
That said, yes, anti-gun people have an odd sort of bigotry and that’s been playing out on the blogosphere. And Joe shows us quite a few examples of such bigotry. And Sebastian weighs in on the bigotry meme too.
And this is funny. The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Ownership steps up to say “Nyuh uh, we’re not bigots“. Their rebuttal is a bit silly. Because the notion of bigotry that we’re pushing is the civil rights angle and the general condescension in which an anti-gunner views anyone who is a pro-gun activist to be a red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal. As sebastian notes:
It’s one thing to argue in favor of your position. It’s quite another to strongly imply that you’re better and more enlightened than those who oppose your position.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Almost all of the gun banners I have argued with over the last forty years have basically been afraid of their neighbors.
They see no reason to have a gun – so the neighbors who have guns must be up to no good. And of course, eventually the neighbors will break loose and kill the gun banner.
Mere reason is generally as useless against a hard core hoplophobe as it is on an agoraphobic. But there are also a great many on the gun ban side who are not certifiably insane. Reasonable argument does work on those. But it is a terribly slow process.
Stranger
February 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I think that for the most part anti-gun sentiment among middle class white people is not rooted in a fear of other white people with guns but in a fear of brown skinned people.
I have found that if you push an anti-gunner hard enough he will reveal himself to be a genuine, dyded in the wool racial bigot. Once you have shot down every last argument that an anti-gunner can muster the last remark that you might get, if he feels comfortable enough around you to say it is often something along the lines of “look, you really don’t want blacks/puerto ricans etc. to be able to get guns, do you?”
They go after us in the gun culture because it is politically correct but we are not the real objects of their fear.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
I think the hoplophobes are either: a)unable to see that one can be bigoted against rural Whites as well as urban Blacks/Hispanics/Others, or b) scared to death of anyone except themselves with access to arms.
Either way, I find that I really don’t give the hinder parts of a large-ish, overweight rodent.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
“I don’t think the meme is effective with your average white people.”
While I agree it is wise to think of what “sells” to the general public, a supporting fact that can be backed with strong evidence is worth presenting.
“… so the neighbors who have guns must be up to no good.”
“…scared to death of anyone except themselves with access to arms.”
True. And they say we’re the paranoid ones. And B Smith; it’s both a and b.