A bit of a kerfluffle...

.. about one gun owner writing inflammatory letters to the editor of a local paper. People are asking whether he's stupid, insane, or just wrong... or if maybe he's right and everyone not saying so is a coward or a statist or something.

Personally my feelings are simple: Anyone saying they would violently resist the government under conditions short of Hitleresque tyranny has got the wrong idea. Any government that will confiscate guns door-to-door will first come knocking individually on the doors of anyone stupid enough to put statements about armed resistance out to a widespread audience, and they'll probably use those very statements as the reason they had to act.

How many times have we heard the news reporting that the police raided someone's home, arrested the owner, and confiscated all his firearms... because of "threatening behavior" or "advocating violence against law enforcement" or similar phrases? Unless you want to be that person, keep the rhetoric below the imminent threat level.

If it should ever come to pass that exactly that kind of resistance is necessary, it won't matter how many times you've said you would resist on the Internet. And it certainly won't convince anyone that gun ownership is desirable; quite the opposite. It's a concession that you've lost the argument (or perhaps that your debate partner wasn't really listening). When your arguments boil down to, "Well, you can't make me, and if you try, I'll kill you," most people aren't sympathetic... even if you mean every word.

Posted on 2008-07-24 11:25:07.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

Check the groups below and enter your email address to receive updates by email:

The trackback URL for this entry is: http://triggerfinger.org/weblog/servlet/trackback/7411

No trackbacks have been posted so far.

No comments have been posted so far.