Monday, October 09, 2017

Dragged around by your feelings



If you have thought things through, and done it right, your opinions won't change due to events.

Yes, new information that shows you were wrong on some point can (and should) change your opinion, but new events that don't have any actual new information shouldn't change your view of reality.

It doesn't matter if it was a "historic" mass shooting, a friend being killed in a local mass shooting, or your daughter dying in a car wreck caused by a guy on drugs.

If those things do suddenly make you change your opinion, my thought is that you weren't thinking before, but only feeling.

I know, that's probably harsh.

But, I'm tired of people suddenly becoming (or coming out as) anti-gun bigots because an event makes them sad or scared. The reality of the facts didn't change, only your perception did. And this means you aren't perceiving things accurately.

Anti-gun "laws" are still a net negative; they do more harm than good.
Anti-gun "laws" don't save innocent lives, and sometimes destroy innocent lives. More people are still saved by gun ownership and possession ("keep and bear arms") than are harmed.
Bad people who are not stopped by laws against murder aren't going to be stopped by any other "laws", either.
The kind of weapon doesn't matter when you are being murdered-- it isn't somehow "better" to be stabbed to death, strangled, or intentionally hit by a car than to be shot.
Guns are easy to make, and if you are going to the trouble of making one anyway, you might as well make a full-auto firearm (it's easier than a semi-auto, anyway), if the penalties are all about the same and that's what you want to make.
If ammo is banned, people will invent guns that don't need it, or ammo that is easy to make with stuff found around the house. Liberty ALWAYS finds a way.

But that's not even the issue.

No one has the right to forbid anyone else from owning or carrying a gun. Your feelings about the matter are irrelevant (sorry) and don't magically create that right. A "job" or position can't create that right out of thin air. A huge tragedy or act of malevolence can't create that right. A public outcry doesn't create that right. A right that doesn't exist can't be created just because you want it.

It would be nice to see people grow some principles, but that's probably expecting too much for members of a species that choose to be ruled by their feelings.


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