Why liberals should stop pushing for more gun control laws.
This article was found in Undernews (The news while there's still time to do something about it) and was unatributted. It was published August 17th, 1999.
There are already thousands of gun laws, too many of which don't work. Every ineffective law brings government into disrepute.
Prohibition of something that large numbers of citizens want always fail, witness the war on the drugs. It merely increases the value of the prohibited item and changes the distributors from honest people to crooks.
Gun control laws are highly divisive to no good end. Since they don't work well, why get everyone so mad about them? Liberals should instead start finding issues that make people happy.
Treating gun laws as a national issue exacerbates cultural conflict, such as those between rural and urban, east and west, wealthy and not so well off. Telling rural Westerners to get rid of their guns is like telling an urban black to stop reading African-American books.
There is no evidence that members of the NRA murder people at a higher rate than non-members. It is insulting to gun owners to speak as though they did.
The push for gun restrictions and prohibition is interwoven with the drive to restrict other citizen liberties and erode democracy. Liberals once opposed such moves, but recently have been no shows. Liberals need to become civil libertarians again.
America no longer has a strong, reliable democracy. It has been deeply corrupted and is being brutally manipulated. We are also losing our major defense against tyranny: the spirit and will of the people. An armed citizenry is a reasonable back-up plan.
People who drive around cities in four-wheel drive SUV's shouldn't lecture others on what safety precautions they should take.
The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government. I didn't say that. Thomas Jefferson did.
Liberals should stop treating average Americans as though they were alien creatures. Liberal haven't just lost elections because of their issues but because of their attitudes as well.