But of course
From a reader: The main point is that liberals and conservatives differ on gun control because liberals value statism and conservatives value individual rights.
And, you know, Majority of Democrats Are Willing to Part With Some Civil Liberties for Security. So are the elderly. This tells me something valuable but I’m not going to spoil it in case their strategists figure it out.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:28 pm
Not ALL elderly Sir. My Parents are in the seventies and cry for what this country has become. Of course they are not dependent on the meager SSI checks either.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:52 pm
Why do Baby Boomers have to ruin EVERYTHING. Damn hippies.
May 30th, 2013 at 9:01 pm
Concur with Keads!
May 30th, 2013 at 9:22 pm
The Republicans only value individual rights until it comes to sex, the war on drugs, waterboarding, extraordinary rendition, ignoring the fact that banks lied and committed fraud to foreclose on homes, and more.
May 30th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
Wait, remind me, was it only the one party that voted in the Patriot Act — or did it get a majority of both?
May 30th, 2013 at 11:12 pm
Most people “value” individual rights. That’s an easy thing to do; when you go statist, it just means that you value something else more — like, say, mandated elevators for swimming pools, or keeping out foreign labor competition, or preserving some obscure species of owl, or your next welfare/subsidy check…
Tell me that individual rights is your basic political principle. Then there’s serious hope that you might not be a statist.
May 30th, 2013 at 11:13 pm
The quote referred to conservatives, not Republicans. They are NOT the same thing.
May 30th, 2013 at 11:31 pm
Started out conservative, don’t know where I am now.
I don’t necessarily agree with the author. I’ve had some pretty liberal/socialist friends who turned out to be oh-so-very pro-gun, which I found very interesting.
I think the pro-gun “ism” is a great meeting point for both conservatives and liberals. The anti-gun thoughts seem like the they stream out of certain specific political groups, in very messed-up political environments, such as Chicago, Hawaii, and D.C.
Even through my conservative viewpoints and experiences, I find that being pro-gun makes for a friendly and common viewpoint with a lot of very liberal-oriented people.
I know that definitions and political self-identifications have changed in the last ten years, but “I like guns and shooting” seems like such a great place to get started.
Ultimately, I want as many people as possible to be as exposed to guns as possible, because I have found a strong tendency for people to want to protect that right once it’s been experienced, no matter whether there’s a conservative or liberal bent to the thinking.
The national Democrat anti- sentiment is profoundly harmful to that party, and I try to do what I can to reverse it. Meantimes, no one against my gun rights ever gets my vote.
May 31st, 2013 at 2:06 am
There are only two sides in this world,statist or freedom. Make sure you’re on the right side.
May 31st, 2013 at 6:54 am
There’s only two sides to anything: the side that is certain there are only two sides, and the side that isn’t.
Still payin’ taxes, HardCorp? Why?
May 31st, 2013 at 8:09 am
the problem is baby boomers. they are statist and will fight tooth and nail for their SS and medicare.
May 31st, 2013 at 9:14 am
I started out conservative and gradually became libertarian. Figured out that freedom is freedom – can’t have civil liberties without economic freedom and vice versa.
May 31st, 2013 at 9:31 am
NPB nailed it: Once most folks actually pull the trigger on a 10/22 and put a teeny tiny hole in a paper target 25 yards away, or fire a particularly evil Glock 17 and realize it doesn’t emit mass-kill mind-control rays, or shoot an EBR again and again and again until realizing 30 rounds is actually quite a lot trigger pulls, the anti-gun myths disappear. Reality sets in.
And the person who shot the plinker or pistol or rifle stands a very good chance of realizing reality is the way to go, and becomes another convert to pro-rights, pro-gun individualism.
May 31st, 2013 at 10:26 am
Why do people pay taxes? Because armed men will come and steal my shit and imprison me if I don’t. Sounds like you you’re too lazy to think your question though to its conclusion.
Don’t support statists. Don’t offer comfort to state minions, shame those who do.
May 31st, 2013 at 11:25 am
“Sounds like you you’re too lazy to think your question though to its conclusion.
Don’t support statists. Don’t offer comfort to state minions, shame those who do.”
If I don’t support the statists, they will audit me, and then send force to take my things and imprision or kill me…
Sounds like you you’re too lazy to think your statement though to its conclusion.
Truly, there are only 10 kinds of people in this world; those who understand binary, and those who do not.
May 31st, 2013 at 12:42 pm
There is actually only 2 kind of people in this world:
The kind of jackasses who try REALLY hard to come up with pithy but meaningless and fucking stupid quotes; the kind that sit back and watch the jackasses try to outdo each other while using his own stupid mindless quotes to make everyone on the internet (ya know those people that don’t really matter to you) believe that he is somehow wise.
On second thought …. there is only one kind of person on the internet.
May 31st, 2013 at 3:23 pm
keads – yep.
I am nearing 70, have never owned a firearm, and do not expect to – but if my neighbor wants one, why (in general) shouldn’t my neighbor be able to? Heck, I would almost certainly be a bit safer if my neighbor DID have one.
May 31st, 2013 at 8:57 pm
.22lr, there are actually 11 kinds of people in the world: those who get the joke and think it’s funny, those who get the joke and think it’s lame, and those who don’t get the joke.
June 1st, 2013 at 12:13 am
No, 100 kinds of people.
Those who get the joke and think it’s funny.
Those who get the joke and think it’s lame.
Those who don’t get the joke.
Those who get the joke and chuckle esoterically a little, but think it has overtones of mostly lame.
(sorry)
June 1st, 2013 at 10:32 am
Uncle, you shouldn’t pick on your elders like that. Unless you are a lot older than you sound, I was shooting before you were born, and maybe a soldier before then too. I still carry, and I still spend time at the range. Matter of fact, I’ve bought more firearms in the past 12 years than in the 60 years before then. And I have not released myself from that oath I swore in 1959, to protect and defend.
June 1st, 2013 at 5:37 pm
There’s only two kinds of bacteria in this world aerobic and anaerobic.
June 1st, 2013 at 7:05 pm
Those that are anti are afraid. Those that are afraid don’t reason things through to their rational conclusions. Those who do not reason surrender their personal responsibility. Those who have no responsibility desire a state to care for them. Those. Are. Statists. They are not free. I can’t see how someone who is pro-gun and therein pro-civil liberty can still rationally claim to be a Democrat, as the Democratic Party’s core beliefs are statist. Without exception, every single Democrat I have ever spoken with or argued with has eventually confessed to a unshakable belief that people need to be told what to do and should be glad to surrender certain basic human rights in order to have a “better” and “safer” society. They do not trust people, because they do not trust themselves.
June 4th, 2013 at 10:12 pm
“Conservative” is an adjective. I’m conservative of the Constitution and ALL of the Bill of Rights so I want the government restricted to its delegated powers and the people at liberty to exercise ALL of the Bill of Rights without violation or infringement by the government. Once upon a time that was classical liberalism. Most liberals today want to conserve government’s power to arbitrarily violate certain liberties and most conservatives no longer care about conserving the Constitution and ALL of the Bill of Rights.