![Rainy Days and Mondays](/content/images/size/w900/2017/09/default-featured-image-01a.jpg)
Rainy Days and Mondays
At some point I’m going to have to gather my thoughts on the 2a and gun control together, but it hasn’t been a priority. Mostly because Larry Correia has been absolutely amazing with his posts, especially his classic from years ago that is a very long read, but has a lot of useful info. To a lesser degree, but still good, there’s Michael Z Williamson’s posts on the subject, including a recent article and a post on his blog.
If Larry’s has a weakness, it’s that it’s cold, merciless dialectic, though couched in enough rhetorical mockery to not be boring. It’s not, however, like the time Eric Raymond got a gun grabber to finally listen by calling him a sheep in a forum.
Dialectic usually won’t work, because they still feel that that chunk of metal and plastic is responsible for the pain, so they should ban it, to be “doing something”.
Also, I’m not sure how to best school the type, but the “pro” gun supporters who lean on the “well it’s the second amendment man” are generally useless. Sure, that’s true, until it gets amended, or a government less concerned with laws ignores it anyway. That’s why the aforementioned “sheep” putdown, or talking of responsibility, the inborn right to defend oneself, etc. tends to get me much further. Oh, and the look I got when I pointed out we should ban public schools…
Read them all. Good stuff. Especially Larry’s.
A few thoughts.
Teachers.
Larry, especially, alluded to this in his article, but I’ve heard middle and high school teachers, and college professors, talk about how stupid it would be to have teachers carry guns, that we’d have someone irresponsible forget themselves and screw up, or worse, go off his rocker.
SJW’s always project. Frankly, if a teacher thinks so little of himself and his fellow faculty, then I certainly will second his lack of trust in people by not trusting him.
But here’s the fun part.
These are, presumabaly, college edumacated folk. Bettr’n us. See?
Kids who can’t get into college can still join the military (though there is a hard lower ASVAB limit), and learn how to safely operate very lethal things that will kill people if pointed the wrong way.
Same kids can operate lathes, drill presses, bandsaws, and power tools, all things that are more complicated to operate than a firearm and thoroughly life-threatening. No, they’re not portable, the point is that they can permanently remove body parts or kill people, and that they are more complicated to operate properly than your typical glock or AR-15.
And these kids operate them safely, day in and day out.
So teachers, who go to college, presumably have a moral compass refined by higher learning, and presumably are more intelligent, can’t keep their own temper, don’t realize that pulling a Baretta on Mitzy and capping her because she mouthed off is wrong, and are too dumb to operate a fairly simple mechanical tool?
Why the fuck are we letting them near our kids?
(Oh, I really pissed off a college prof with that last observation).
Responsibility.
Who’s responsible for your safety? As in is liable and will be penalized if something goes wrong, if you get hurt crossing the street, etc?
If you said, well, yourself, then you win a prize.
If the answer is “the police” or such, think it through. How is that person going to keep you safe? Who can be forced to follow you around to pull you back if you misstep on a stair, or start picking a stupid fight?
Ok, let’s pretend they are indeed responsible, no matter what the courts say. How can they be responsible without having authority to tell you what to do, how, and when? If they are not slaves, if they are responsible for your safety, to do so they have to be able to order you around. And being responsible for someone’s life gives a lot of moral leeway to order them around.
For their own good.
So now I just say “why not?” when told “no-one needs that many x”.
And if they are not responsible for my safety, then what gives them the authority to decide for me that “ten – or any other number – of rounds is enough?”
I’m not even going to debate about how many rounds are necessary, where Larry does at least try to explain why. They have no authority over me to make that decision for me, because I’m responsible for figuring out how much I want to carry to protect me and mine.