tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post3545595601082053113..comments2024-03-29T05:11:44.999-04:00Comments on Strangely Blogged: I Hope the Kids Will Be AlrightVixen Strangelyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976594951225450413noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-53332532901635285202018-03-30T17:04:20.789-04:002018-03-30T17:04:20.789-04:00I'd like to disagree with Formerly Amherst her...I'd like to disagree with Formerly Amherst here, in that:<br /><br />1. Why are liberal activists "agenda-driven" any more than any other group of activists, including irrational fear-driven guns-forever advocates?<br />2. When did the Bill of Rights become indelible? I don't think anybody will manage to successfully erase any of its provisions any time soon — but they are amendments, after all. The very fact of their existence suggests the act of legislative editing. <br />3. Most liberals/leftists don't want to see the 2nd Amendment eradicated; we'd like to see it constrained by reasonable limitations. Like, no assault weapons. No semi-automatic weapons. No bump stocks. No extended magazines. No guns for domestic abusers. No guns for people who have committed violent crimes. Single-action handguns and hunting rifles only, available under strict licensing and background-check regimes, etc. (I'd like to see the 2nd Amendment only extended to people participating in a well-organized official state militia, personally, but I'll take what I can get.) <br />4. I grew up on a farm, where guns were used as actual tools. Nobody shot anybody. The conditions of my own upbringing are obviously not capable of being extrapolated to circumstances like those found at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, though, so I don't try. I wish this "well, <i>we</i> had guns & didn't kill each other, so therefore guns aren't dangerous" argument could die a peaceful death at home in bed. It won't be missed.<br />5. You can't just shoot drug dealers. It's illegal. & between drug dealers and heavily-armed, violently insane people who see their own government and most of their fellow citizens as unscrupulous enemy combatants, I'll take the drug dealers.<br />6. It's not over yet. You can hear a storm before you see it. I believe in these kids, and I believe in change. It won't be easy, and it won't happen overnight, but it'll happen.<br /><br />Emmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11771959740072605857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436782247272162797.post-24958144720978552022018-03-29T15:56:38.354-04:002018-03-29T15:56:38.354-04:00Hi Vixen, I also have some sympathy for these kids...Hi Vixen, I also have some sympathy for these kids who have undergone tragedy. <br /><br />The problem is that very quickly these kids generate so much passion that they are useful to people with political agendas. They are co-opted by the agenda driven group which causes a lot of noise and a lot of psychic inflation, but can come to no result. <br /><br />Here's what they political-agenda people realize or understand. The Bill of Rights is indelible and cannot be changed. No matter how many people march on Washington, it will have no effect in terms of affecting the Bill of Rights. Legislators cannot change the Bill of Rights by voting for stuff. The agenda-driven people know this.<br /><br />The other thing that they know is that each state is responsible for setting its own gun policy. The political-agenda people know that were they to drive the kids to the governor's mansion to interact with state representatives and senators, a conversation might be possible. The kids would become more educated, because a discussion would have to include the realities of self-defense, hunting, and other factors connected with gun rights. Were the kids to be driven to interact with the state it might actually be possible in some way to change the gun laws in that state. <br /><br />The agenda-driven people prefer to drive the kids to Washington because they can make a lot of noise. Inflammatory speeches, bellicose denouncements, self-righteous justification, along with an enemies list. They are yelling in the wrong place. Nothing is going to affect the Bill of Rights. They need to be taking their motivations to discussions at the state level where some change might be possible.<br /><br />The agenda-driven people understand all this full well. But they opt for making a lot of temporary noise over actually trying direct the passion to the state level where something could conceivably be accomplished. <br /><br />We have talked about this subject in the past, and where I live guns are about as numerous as indoor plumbing. It's been this way since recorded memory. Nobody ever shoots anybody unless it's a burglar or a drug dealer.<br /><br />So there are two directions. One makes a lot of noise and blows over, and the other might be responsible for instituting some kind of change. Politicians always choose the noise.Formerly Amherstnoreply@blogger.com