What's the best argument for gun control?

[Anonymous]

The best argument for gun control is a mentally unstable white woman crying and calling white men terrorists and murderers. Extremely convincing. Just like this

If you're a white man in the US, you know that we don't think about paying our bills, studying, working, making our beloved ones happy, instead we wake up every day thinking about how much people we'll murder till the end of the day, then we do it and go sleep. And the vicious circle repeat again and again.

Having that said, these cold blooded killer robots should be forbidden to own firearms in this amazing non-racist country!

#GunControl

[nightdrot]

We accept, with any right, the potentiality that it may conduce to evil as much as it may conduce to good. The method by which a right is exercised is less consequential then the social context and intellectual suppositions in which it is exercised.

The real issue with the Second Amendment is that rights are viewed by Americans in absolutist terms. As Burke pointed out, such "natural rights" do exist, but "their abstract perfection is their practical defect." Such rights are applied with too little regard to the cultural context in which they exist.

There is much to suggest that the culture is incapable of prudently and sensibly managing the rights it abstractly attributes to itself. Alexander Hamilton made the point that if you have a Bill of Rights you extend to the government the authority to regulate those rights.

Indeed, the regulation of those rights is actually routine. Free speech is limited by slander, perjury, defamation and copyright laws, among others. Freedom of religion is allowed consistent with public order - if a religion calls for human sacrifice, it is prohibited. There are other examples and the list is long.

However, in the matter of the right to bear arms, in part, guns are woven into the culture in various ways. An emphasis on self-defense - particularly in urban areas where crime tends to be high - rural areas where hunting is an important sport, gun collectors and gun clubs, and, as you noted, an ethic rooted in America's libertarian traditions of resistance to tyranny. (Though the notion that the government is a threat to liberty at this interregnum in the nation's life is patently absurd. So supine is the government that it cannot even balance its budget lest it ask the public to pay for what they buy.)

The segment of the population that tends toward absolutism on the Second Amendment is actually quite small, but is extremely intense. Whereas those who take a more nuanced view of gun rights tend to be less intense and more ambivalent. It is not generally their top priority and so the country tends, on the whole, to give both culturally and legally a wide scope to gun rights.

However, it is not at all clear that the culture, as it devolves into a populist tone and an abstract libertarianism with an emphasis on individualism at the expense of community standards, that the society can handle responsibly the rights it has accrued to itself. Including gun rights.

Burke said "men have no right to that which is not reasonable," and rights must be defined through the prism of the context in which they are exercised. What the nation has in the Second Amendment is a right that presupposes an ethic of community standards that are at this moment in the nation's life, at best, fraying. In short, that presupposition needs to be re-examined and, pace Hamilton, the right needs to be regulated in the light of such a re-examination.

In short, what matters is not the method, but the ethical and social context in which rights are defined and exercised. Americans are, in this time in history, inclined to view freedom as an end in itself and not a means to an end and thus rights are defined in absolutist terms. Here is where the problem begins.

[Silas_153]

Why do you call her "mentally unstable"? She's 100% correct. No civilian needs an AK-47 or AR-15. This may not be the "best" argument for gun control, but it certainly is one of the better ones when I say that although guns themselves don't kill people, they certainly make it far easier for a madman (and yes, it's always a man - she's right about that too) to kill more people in a shorter span of time. You can always run away from a lunatic with a knife, but you can't do the same when someone has a gun. Maybe you can hide somewhere and hope he doesn't find you.

[JuliaStyles]

It's not good, law abiding people who are doing this stuff. It is crazy people for the most part. Or people that just get pissed off. An 86 year old man (who should have been retired years ago was told to pack up his kit and that he was being involuntarily retired. He asked to work one more year and the boss refused - was the guy slow or was the boss thinking about him and telling him to enjoy the last few years of his life at 86? Anyway the guy got pissed and killed his boss. An example of someone being pissed. Road rage, divorce, or what ever the reason, these people are not acting sanely. I might also comment that the guy used a pistol, not an AR-15. Was is just poor planning? The guy had 86 years to secure his retirement. But at that age you are probably slow and forgetful. Was the boss out of line?

[A_Bell]

The government should be able to do whatever it wants to its citizens with risk of anyone resisting since governments have never murdered anyone.

All governments are benevolent and only looking for what's best for everyone, even if that means some people need to be forcibly relocated to camps to make it happen.

Gun control is the only way to ensure peaceful compliance for the collective good.

(Yes this is sarcasm.)

[Silas_153]

What does the government have to do with any of this? Gun control works. That is a fact.

[Rangers]

The best and only argument they present is this "I'm so triggered that you can have such a scary looking gun (that they know nothing about), especially when it's in the hands of a white nazi racist, terrorist piece of trash like you (referring to me, before they know anything about me besides I'm white and own shit that scares them)" Have you seen those who call for gun control? They're probably the weakest people that humanity has ever produced, that's why they scapegoat an inanimate object and try to ban it for the false perception of safety rather than taking safety into their own hands and getting a gun to defend themselves.

[Agape93]

Think of the worst person in the world. A serial killing child rapist who likes to burn animals. Now imagine if they suddenly wanted to massacre people in a hospital or a school. So what is going to prevent that? Not a damn thing. Why? Because he can just go to the store and buy a gun.

[Asker]

"Think of the worst person in the world. A serial killing child rapist who likes to burn animals."

Why are these people living free in our society to begin with?

[ChrisMaster69]

Because they can be Anon…

[Lliam]

@ChrisMaster69, the only way you can get a gun anon is illegally, you now, like the gangs.
Gun control does nothing to address that. All it does is make honest people helpless.

[Anonymous]

The best argument is that countries with gun control have lower gun homicide rates that countries without gun control.

Australia went from lax to gun laws to strict gun control and saw gun homicide rates plummet and hasn't had a mass shooting in 25 years.

[Silas_153]

That's right, we haven't! Gun control works.

[blank_expression]

The best argument for gun control/confiscation is a dictatorship seeks full and absolute power over its citizens. There is no other valid argument other than gun control is about people control, absolute.

[Lliam]

Cluelessness? Irrational fear? Groupthink? Glued to TV news?
Less than half as many people are murdered with guns than die in car crashes. I'll bet this sniveling agoraphobiac doesn't hesitate to get in a car.

[Silas_153]

Cars were never designed to deliberately kill people, because they are a mode of transportation, and accidents happen. Guns, on the other hand, have only one function - to kill. Your comparison is ridiculous.

[Lliam]

@Silas_153. As if guns are only used for aggression. If that's the case, why do police need them?

Aside from wholesome recreation, people also need guns for the same reason that cops need them.

Less than 4000 non-gang related gun homicides occur annually, out of close to 100 million honest gun owning citizens. I was just using cars as a way of putting numbers in perspective. If you look at various causes of death in the U. S., gun deaths are minescule.

Here's an idea. How 'bout people who don't like guns not own them and fuck off with their Nazi attitudes about using government authoritarianism (cops with guns) to steal other people's natural, self-evident, unalienable rights.

[Silas_153]

I didn't say they were only used aggressively, I said they served only one purpose, and that is to kill. Your entire response is based upon a claim I did not make. Are you embarrassed by this?
"I was just using cars as a way of putting numbers in perspective", you claim.
No, you were being dishonest and disingenuous. Don't lie to me, I don't like liars.
Nazi attitudes? The Nazis loved guns, because they loved violence and aggression. Whenever someone brings up the Nazis (or Hitler) you know they've lost the argument.

[Lliam]

@Silas_153. The only embarrassing thing is you.

[Silas_153]

LOL. Is that all you've got? Sad. Very sad you are.

[Tamera952]

Maybe the fact that we have a mass-shooting every other day is a pretty good argument for starters.

[FunkyMonkee]

I don't know of any!
I've been keeping an eye on my AR-15 for quite some time and, so far, it has never ONCE tried to attack me!! Still playing it safe, though!!

[Anonymous]

Gun control doesn't work, California and Illinois have some of the most strict gun control laws in the U. S., and what success are those states having? Extensive background checks would help, but going after gangs would be a good place to start.

[John_Doesnt]

California has one of the lowest gun crime rates in the country. So it does work. Get your head out of the sand and stop watching OAN news.

[Silas_153]

Gun control does work, because here in Australia we've had it since the 1990's, and we haven't had a single mass shooting since the new restrictions were introduced. You Yanks need to stop lying to yourselves about this.

[Anonymous]

These social engineers have this shit down to a science... and white women are the number one target

[joeldalton]

White, liberal women are a scourge on society.

[OddBeMe]

Simple. More guns = more gun deaths. Reverse it.

[Pterodon]

Who defines mentally unstable?

[John_Doesnt]

Every other country.

[JesseJayNeak]

There isn't

[Silas_153]

Are you sure about that? Think harder.

[JesseJayNeak]

@Silas_153 I'm sure 100%