You may remember my tongue in cheek post here. Yes, it was snarky in tone, but the actual leftist argument – that power corrupts, that power imbalances encourage and enable oppression, that power flows from the barrel of a gun, and that handing capitalist oppressors or potential tyrants (where do you think all of the sociopaths who want power over others are going to go?) exclusive power to that given the rather dicey relationship the left already has with the police and military is just stupid, holds true.
So true in fact that, courtesy of a post by Eric Raymond, who uncovered this article, we have a long, academic, and thorough discussion of why the left really should be for gun rights.
Yeah, there are leftist assumptions here that I disagree with, but this is obviously one of the increasingly rare (and likely Trotskyist) leftists that actually believes in a objective reality rather than the post-modern mind-killing drivel. In short, we actually share something approaching the same reality and can discuss the ins and outs of where lines should be drawn based on at least a few common understandings, much like Scott at Slate Star Codex may make assumptions I disagree with, but is wedded enough to the facts that he at least makes a solid case and argument.
These superficial historical arguments actually confirm that, historically, in America as elsewhere, guns have been recognized as tools of empowerment, to be distributed as widely as possible among those considered worthy of empowerment, and to be denied to those deemed unworthy of empowerment and eligible for subjugation. Who, in today’s America, do these liberal commentators think is unworthy of that empowerment?
Worth a read.
