Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The Gun Debate

When watching episode 4 of season 1 of 'The West Wing' - 'Five votes down', I was struck by how the gun-control debate hasn't moved an inch in the last 14 years. The same polarization, the same fear of the NRA primary-ing Congressmen, the same talk of African-American youth being disproportionately affected by gun violence and so on. It's as though time has stopped when it comes to this issue.

And now there's talk of the NRA promising the fight of the century. Boy, these folks sure dig deep. The tyranny argument strikes me as fallacious. The weakest governments these days have firepower that can easily destroy reasonably-armed militia. I don't see how having ARs can protect people against governments turning tyrannical. Also, isn't voting-in a democratically elected government slightly besides the point when you mistrust them so much you need to sleep with a Bushmaster and a few thousand rounds of ammo close by just in case jackbooted government thugs decide to come by and pay you a visit?