Reply #47: I've been posting about this for weeks..

[sendero]

... gun control policies, as practiced by "liberals" are useless, have created no greater good for society and have cost Dems millions of votes.

As far as I'm concerned, those points are not even arguable. I'm not talking about background checks and the like, I'm talking about putrid and stupid legislation like the "assault weapons ban", which is about as accurately labelled as the "new freedom initiative".

This we-have-to-get-the-guns liberal mantra is one of the main elements in the public's perception of liberals as a bunch of whiny pantywaists. The facts are simple:

1) there are millions of guns in the US. the only effective control would be to melt them down and it is not going to happen.

2) laws that make largely artificial distinctions between one gun and another might make the ignorant sleep better, but it infuriates those with a clue. how do you like it when legislation restricting your rights is passed, where everyone who knows the subject matter recognizes it is nothing more than a feel-good bill that screws with people and makes not one person safer?

3) right wingers have long amassed guns as a hedge against a totalitarian government. guess what, the totalitarian government is not coming from the left, its coming from the right (a legit argument might address how useful the citizen ownership of firearms against a totalitarian government actually is, I'm not getting that far in here)

4) the left has always been about individual rights. but on the gun issue the left just loses its mind. you simply cannot justify restricting the rights of gun owners because you are afraid of what they might do. once someone commits a criminal act, they lose some of their rights, gun ownership being one of those rights. but to pass laws that say "we can't trust people to have guns" - well that is an a priori infringement of rights that the left should be against