The Left really hates gun ownership, and for very good reason. The Second Amendment wasn't written for hunting and self-defense, but to serve as a bulwark against tyranny - precisely what the Left intends on us.
And pray tell, how would a bunch of people with guns stand up to a truly authoritarian government willing to slaughter an entire city to make its point? Let's be honest. The second amendment was written because of necessity. There were threats on the frontier and a lack of effective protection and it was also thought (wrongly) that militias would defend the nation instead of having to rely upon a professional army. I am a second amendment absolutist but the increase in gun ownership is not a good sign but a sign that more and more people have lost faith in the ability of law enforcement to protect them and so they must take on the responsibility themselves. It's a sign of societal breakdown and not something to be greeted gladly.
Ask most Americans what happened at Lexington and Concord, MA, on 4/19/1775, and many draw a blank. The shooting started because the British were marching to confiscate the Colonists’ arms and ammunition... and the Colonists knew that if the British succeeded, they would be very hard pressed to resist. I like to remind anti-gunners that, in 1775, Americans had the same firepower parity as their government - and even owned artillery. The American people lost that parity in 1934, and have lost ground in 1968, and 1986, culminating in the Clinton AWB of 1994. (I will note that Clinton later blamed this ban for the Democrats losing the House in 1994 by a huge, historic margin.) The SCOTUS also didn’t start hearing too many Second Amendment cases until the historic 2008 DC v. Heller (and McDonald v. City of Chicago, in 2010.) Things started improving somewhat in 2008, and improved some more with the recent Bruen Decision. There’s still a long way to go. “Surely, you don’t think people should be allowed to own fully-automatic weapons!?!?!?” 1) On Forward Operating Bases overseas, United States Military personnel have almost unrestricted access to fully automatic weapons: “Mass shooting” events are rare. For one thing, almost everyone else is armed - with at least semiautomatic handguns - and anyone doing such a thing would soon be stopped; 2) Even if people had access to automatic weapons, murder - and other violent crimes - would *still* be prohibited by law: we don’t have any shortage of existing laws that prohibit murder, aggravated assault, etc..
Speaking of two groups of people, I noticed an interesting trend that came along with the rise in gun ownership by women and minorities. It seems both the usual suspects on the Left and TDR Republicans* started accusing and/or taunting the rest of the gun owning population over this statistic. Their expectation is that traditional gun owners would find the idea of women and minorities owning firearms a thing to fear. In all cases where I saw this the opposite has been true. Staunch believers in the 2nd Amendment genuinely want as many as are capable, willing to be trained, and keep weapons responsibly as possible. I'm sure both groups found these answers disappointing, and probably wrote it off as false. I could go into the various similar/differing motives of the two groups, but that's a separate discussion. I will say the intersectionality of the two would make an interesting Venn diagram.
* As most of you who read Peter's blog don't know me, I feel obliged to state that while I have no love at all for Trump, and can not vote for him, I am neither TDR, a Republican, or a Democrat. I'm here because I love liberty, but am not a Libertarian.
I've seen those taunts endless times, and they're always rebutted with "we'd welcome them with open arms." Which is actually the case wherever I've seen it.
There's a unifying aspect to it, one that I've also found in music (and especially in metal). When you're shoved into an "out group," which gun owners are per our cultural overlords, you find solidarity.
A couple years ago, I bought one of the new Corvettes. With it came a steep discount to the Corvette driving school outside Las Vegas. I took the class, and in my group of 17, there was one black guy. When we discovered each other's interest in guns, we insta-bonded.
The Left really hates gun ownership, and for very good reason. The Second Amendment wasn't written for hunting and self-defense, but to serve as a bulwark against tyranny - precisely what the Left intends on us.
And pray tell, how would a bunch of people with guns stand up to a truly authoritarian government willing to slaughter an entire city to make its point? Let's be honest. The second amendment was written because of necessity. There were threats on the frontier and a lack of effective protection and it was also thought (wrongly) that militias would defend the nation instead of having to rely upon a professional army. I am a second amendment absolutist but the increase in gun ownership is not a good sign but a sign that more and more people have lost faith in the ability of law enforcement to protect them and so they must take on the responsibility themselves. It's a sign of societal breakdown and not something to be greeted gladly.
Ask most Americans what happened at Lexington and Concord, MA, on 4/19/1775, and many draw a blank. The shooting started because the British were marching to confiscate the Colonists’ arms and ammunition... and the Colonists knew that if the British succeeded, they would be very hard pressed to resist. I like to remind anti-gunners that, in 1775, Americans had the same firepower parity as their government - and even owned artillery. The American people lost that parity in 1934, and have lost ground in 1968, and 1986, culminating in the Clinton AWB of 1994. (I will note that Clinton later blamed this ban for the Democrats losing the House in 1994 by a huge, historic margin.) The SCOTUS also didn’t start hearing too many Second Amendment cases until the historic 2008 DC v. Heller (and McDonald v. City of Chicago, in 2010.) Things started improving somewhat in 2008, and improved some more with the recent Bruen Decision. There’s still a long way to go. “Surely, you don’t think people should be allowed to own fully-automatic weapons!?!?!?” 1) On Forward Operating Bases overseas, United States Military personnel have almost unrestricted access to fully automatic weapons: “Mass shooting” events are rare. For one thing, almost everyone else is armed - with at least semiautomatic handguns - and anyone doing such a thing would soon be stopped; 2) Even if people had access to automatic weapons, murder - and other violent crimes - would *still* be prohibited by law: we don’t have any shortage of existing laws that prohibit murder, aggravated assault, etc..
Soylent Green is People!😳
Speaking of two groups of people, I noticed an interesting trend that came along with the rise in gun ownership by women and minorities. It seems both the usual suspects on the Left and TDR Republicans* started accusing and/or taunting the rest of the gun owning population over this statistic. Their expectation is that traditional gun owners would find the idea of women and minorities owning firearms a thing to fear. In all cases where I saw this the opposite has been true. Staunch believers in the 2nd Amendment genuinely want as many as are capable, willing to be trained, and keep weapons responsibly as possible. I'm sure both groups found these answers disappointing, and probably wrote it off as false. I could go into the various similar/differing motives of the two groups, but that's a separate discussion. I will say the intersectionality of the two would make an interesting Venn diagram.
* As most of you who read Peter's blog don't know me, I feel obliged to state that while I have no love at all for Trump, and can not vote for him, I am neither TDR, a Republican, or a Democrat. I'm here because I love liberty, but am not a Libertarian.
I've seen those taunts endless times, and they're always rebutted with "we'd welcome them with open arms." Which is actually the case wherever I've seen it.
There's a unifying aspect to it, one that I've also found in music (and especially in metal). When you're shoved into an "out group," which gun owners are per our cultural overlords, you find solidarity.
A couple years ago, I bought one of the new Corvettes. With it came a steep discount to the Corvette driving school outside Las Vegas. I took the class, and in my group of 17, there was one black guy. When we discovered each other's interest in guns, we insta-bonded.
"The narration suggests..." should be a running chryon on just about every news item.