Let's Disarm the Nation and the World -- Starting at Home

[SecularMotion]

The complexity of this issue does not obscure Coffin's simple truth: Force will be inevitably met by more force. It is the nature of humans and of sovereign nations to respond to threats defensively. From our provincial position, "evil" nations like North Korea should not have dangerous weapons. From their provincial position, our possession of nuclear weapons provides a practical and moral imperative that they have equally deadly capabilities.

This simple truth also escalates the danger in our domestic life, in the seemingly unrelated realms of gun violence and politics.

Due in large part to the irresponsible rhetoric of the NRA, parroted by the legislators they've bought, the response to force is more force. How many times must we hear the sophomoric, glib and unsupportable claim that the only protection against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? In an admittedly less lethal way than nuclear proliferation, a society filled with armed "bad guys" and "good guys" is an increasingly hostile place for the peaceful majority. The "less lethal" concession is of little solace to victims of gun violence.

The aggressive climate created by the gun lobby has spawned Stand Your Ground laws that crystalize this force-to-force mentality into a justification for shooting anyone you perceive as a threat. Millions of Americans are on hair trigger alert, poised to shoot first and ask questions later. The most likely threat any such individual actually faces is another individual who also "carries" because of this propaganda-induced paranoia. It might be comical if not for the flow of real blood, too often from small bodies of innocent children.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-nelson/disarming-the-nation_b_5112413.html

[The Straight Story]

1. First guns. Then arrows. Then knives. Maybe you only want rich white men

to have 'weapons' but us progressives see things a little different.

There is a fantasy world people want to live in....then there is reality.

[Duckhunter935]

2. Interesting

as he seems to be talking about national armies.

If North Korea had a second amendment, maybe little Kim whats his name might be pushed aside and replaced.

[rrneck]

3. Except that we are living in the most peaceful era in the history of the human species.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Let's not.

Bad idea and impossible to implement.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. The idea that the absence of weapons = peace is absurd on its face.

Once upon a time there were no weapons. There was total world disarmament. Then there were weapons. If weapons were invented ex nihilo once there is every reason to believe it will happen again.

And, no, SYG laws did not create international strife. That too pre-dates the current controversies.

Is this really what passes as serious discussion?

[Lizzie Poppet]

9. Absence of weapons = big, strong people do what they want.

Small, weak people lie me do what they're told. Lovely vision of a world, innit?

And yes, this article is vacuous at best. But when you're trying to spam all real discussion off of a page, selectivity isn't really an option, is it?

[blueridge3210]

10. Spot on. (NT)

[HALO141]

13. You don't have to be logical.

Or smart. If you preach disarmament you will be hailed as a visionary. "Bad guys" only have guns because "good guys" have them? Really?!? The FAIL in that line of thinking is as obvious as it is voluminous but never mind that, it's a lovely thought, right?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. "The FAIL in that line of thinking is as obvious as it is voluminous"

That is why it is safest to assume those making such arguments are of ill-intent.

[geckosfeet]

6. Lets not. State sponsored aggression is quite different than personal self defense as provided

for by the bill of rights.

The writer erroneously equates state sponsored agression and personal self defense. The writer also propagates the ridiculous lie that "millions of Americans are on. hair trigger alert ready to shoot first and ask questions later".

Overblown hyperbolic vomit. Frankly this absurd conspiracy rhetoric has no place on DU.

[gejohnston]

7. does HuffPo pay their writers?

This guy should stick to being the headmaster of an exclusive private school that can afford a chef. Their school lunches are done by a chef.
I hope he can administer his school better than he can write about international affairs and criminology.

[clffrdjk]

8. Is this really the best you can do?

Though we disagree I really do want to see your best arguments.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. "Though we disagree I really do want to see your best arguments."

Many here anticipate the day the OP supplies ANY argument.

[ileus]

11. How does disarming citizens make them safer?

[EX500rider]

12. Yes, lets go back to those "peaceful times" before firearms....lol

New data presented at the conference by a Dutch scholar, Pieter Spierenburg, showed that the homicide rate in Amsterdam, for example, dropped from 47 per 100,000 people in the mid-15th century to 1 to 1.5 per 100,000 in the early 19th century.

Professor Stone has estimated that the homicide rate in medieval England was on average 10 times that of 20th century England. A study of the university town of Oxford in the 1340's showed an extraordinarily high annual rate of about 110 per 100,000 people. Studies of London in the first half of the 14th century determined a homicide rate of 36 to 52 per 100,000 people per year

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/23/us/historical-study-of-homicide-and-cities-surprises-the-experts.html

[Jgarrick]

14. Laughably naive.