Old Blind Dog makes an interesting comment:
“….what the left of today fails to understand…â€
They most certainly do understand it. They are deathly afraid of the threat to power that it implies. It stands in the way of their power over this country and the citizens of this country that they would subjugate under the mantle of socialism. That is why they must destroy it.
I know a fair number of people who support gun control, and I can tell you for none of them is this really true. In fact, I think it’s giving them a bit too much credit. What many on the left want does have the ancillary effect of making us easier to subjugate as a people, but most of them don’t really think that strategically about gun control. There are surely some die hard commies out there who wake up every day and think “We really need to disarm the proletariat before we can seize power and establish our workers paradise!”, but I would be hard pressed to say that even the most left leaning folks think that way. In fact, I generally find the radical left more open to RKBA arguments than much of the mainstream left, at least until the revolution against the bourgeois is over. There are also your basic hoplophobes, who are just afraid of guns, and don’t want anyone else to have them because of that. But the commies and true hoplophobes I think are a minority.
Gun control, for much of the left, is a form of cultural chauvinism. They look down in rural people and rural culture, and would like to “introduce them” to a better way to live, namely the way they live. To them, arms are barbaric, and by allowing them, we corrupt our national culture with an odor of incivility. They see themselves as above that kind of thing, and don’t see disarming as a way to subjugate, but as a way to make the country as a whole reflect their cultural values. One could argue this is still subjugation, and you’d be right, but the motivations are different, and it’s important to understand the mindset properly in order to discredit it. They don’t see gun control is a precursor to ruling, but as a package of values that are counter to our own.
That doesn’t diminish the importance of defending our rights as Americans, but it’s important to understand the many reasons that people support gun control in order to bring fourth good arguments to defeat it in the public debate over the right to keep and bear arms.
Great post. This is definitely true–for the everyday anti-gunner that you meet, there’s no explicit thinking of “subjugation”, but rather it’s a fear and bias against something not understood. People ask me all the time, “why would you ever need a gun?” The question betrays lack of understanding; much like someone looking at statistics of deaths due to car accidents and asking “why would you ever need a car?” The idea of a gun to these people is shaped by the media (guns are only used for crime) and not personal rights nor crime rates. As such, gun culture is something strange and as you say, “incivil”, and that’s reason to demean and outlaw it.
I tend to agree with you, it’s more narrow-minded chauvinism and hoplophobia with a strong dash of very deep yearning for the blissful Nanny State.
I agree with you on a basic level, although I’ve got more thoughts on the issue over at my blog.
Overall, I do agree.
Except that I wasn’t speaking of the everyday rank and file citizen that considers himself to be a democrat. No, I was speaking of the Pelosi’s and Schumer’s of the world, both inside and outside the U.S. To them those rank and file liberals are merely useful idiots.
Politicians are a different breed of dog. I often think anyone who actually desires the power of those offices are probably not the kind of folks who should actually have it. Maybe one day I’ll post my “serve in Congress like it was jury duty” idea. It’s not serious, but I kind of wonder if the results wouldn’t be better, or at least as good.
Some politicians are the “plotting” type, but many are just cowards. It’s relatively easy to blame guns (or drugs or anything else) for the problems in their cities*, but it’s much harder to blame people. After all, guns can’t vote.
*This does tend to be city-phenomenon, but drugs seem to be of a similar focus at state and national levels.