I oppose the TSA because we all have a 4th Amendment right not to be fondled when we travel. Still there are people who see no joy or good in individual liberty, so those arguments are irrelevant to them. Instead when making a persuasive argument I always mention the 4th Amendment, when concerning the TSA, but I always focus on the fact that the agency has cost us BILLIONS of dollars, exposed us to harmful radiation, slowed down travel, and generally made travel unpleasant….all while never catching a single terrorist, or stopping a single attack.
That’s a pretty easy argument to make, and it makes me sad that we still have a TSA despite those indisputable facts.
Same goes for guns. I keep and bear arms, not because of the 2nd Amendment, but because I see it as a natural right for a person to have the tools to defend themselves from attack, theft, and tyranny. These are our rights enumerated under Amendment the Second…but I think this right applies to a subject of the British Crown, or a citizen of Zimbabwe as it does for me.
Still, again, the idea of Individual Liberty doesn’t appeal to all, and certainly the idea that people who are NOT Americans would have the same rights seems very foreign to those who aren’t in the Choir.
Be it ignorance, racism, or straight up selfish, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t understand them for back when I thought that way I was but a child, and I reported to a Mom and Dad. By the time I had changed my mind on the gun issue, I was a grown man, living on my own, working a job. I was done reporting to Mom and Dad, and was fine not to pass that torch onto Big Daddy .Gov.
Still if their motivation is selfishness, well the argument is still pretty persuasive.
It’s honestly a strange time for politicians to push ever-tighter restrictions on gun controls. Even if you’re the sort of person who thinks that everybody’s personal liberty should be restricted if somebody, somewhere, misbehaves, a report released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics makes it apparent that crimes committed with firearms continue their steady, two-decade decline. In terms of specific policy, the recent focus on restricting “assault weapons” makes no sense in an environment in which the preferred weapon for committing those diminishing crimes is the handgun. And the recent obsession with extending background checks on people making legal gun purchases is a true head-scratcher, since most criminals don’t buy their guns legally, with fewer than one percent acquiring their weapons at much-demonized gun shows.
Since President Obama was elected for the first time people have been buying guns in a frenzy. Ammo prices skyrocketed with demand, and today the shelves are bare, even tho the ammo companies are working at full-production. Conceal carry permit waits are are record highs as volumes of applications are pouring in. There is an increased interested in firearms by people in urban areas, by women, and by minorities.
More people are armed on our streets and towns than EVER before…yet crime is down in all but the places with the most gun restrictions.
Firearm-related homicides declined 39%, from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011
Nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69%, from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 victimizations in 2011
From 1993 to 2011, about 70% to 80% of firearm homicides and 90% of nonfatal firearm victimizations were committed with a handgun
In 2004, among state prison inmates who possessed a gun at the time of offense, less than 2% bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show and 40% obtained their firearm from an illegal source
There’s even more facts in the article, but again it points exactly where I turned from the gun control side, more guns in good hands makes us ALL safer.
So sure its nice to talk about Individual Liberty, and Natural Rights, and at the core of the argument that’s where I stand. Still the argument that you live in a safer world because the citizens are armed, and more gun control would only DECREASE that safety will appeal to many more people.
Keep pushing it, as there are still people who believe this isn’t so!
The U.S. gun homicide rate has dropped sharply in the past 20 years, but few Americans are aware of the decline, according to a Pew poll released this week.
The rate of firearm homicide in 2010 was down 49 percent from its peak in 1993, according to Pew, while the rate of nonfatal violent crime involving guns was 75 percent lower in 2011 than in 1993. In both cases, the bulk of the decline took place during the 1990s.
A separate Department of Justice study, also released this week, showed similar figures, with firearm homicides dropping 39 percent, largely between 1993 and 1998.
Public perception hasn’t kept pace. According to the Pew poll, 56 percent of Americans said gun crimes had increased in the past 20 years, while 26 percent thought the number had stayed the same, and just 12 percent said it had gone down.
Our enemies thrive on our ignorance. FIGHT THEM!
H/T Mrs. Weer’d
