A few seconds ago, I wrote that I’m not in favor of banning guns. A few seconds after that, I wrote some more about why banning guns isn’t a good idea. Then I heard from you people who think guns should be banned…and I’ve changed my mind. I’m willing to endorse a ban on guns.
The argument in favor of a gun ban goes like this:
If banning guns prevents just ONE school shooting, it’s worthwhile. If removing guns from the hands of the public saves the life of just ONE child, we should do it. If banning guns deters just ONE person from killing an innocent person, we should ban guns.
I agree. The loss of personal freedom is a small price to pay for the life of another human being. I will join you in the call to ban guns if you’ll join me in the call to ban abortion.
I won’t cherry-pick who counts as an “innocent victim”. If we believe laws will protect people from harm, then we’re going to be consistent. We’re going to use the law to protect ALL children, not just those who can sit in desks at school. The law must protect marginalized children as well.
Don’t you dare back-pedal! Don’t start yammering about women having control over their bodies. I want to use my body to fire guns. I’m giving up my right to shoot stuff because it might save just ONE child. Don’t you care about kids? I do! I’m willing to sacrifice my liberty to keep children safe.
And don’t yammer about rape and incest because those things are already banned. We’ve got to stay in our bubble of naivety if we’re going to make this work. We’ve got to have faith in the law. A gun ban protects children. An abortion ban protects children. That’s the bottom line and it’s all that matters.
Do we have a deal?
I would like to hear from you anti-gun/pro-abortion people. I’m interested in seeing how you’ll rationalize your hypocrisy.
5 Responses
pspruett – What the pro-abort (anti-life) ringleaders don’t usually talk about is: they don’t believe human persons are valuable, whether they’re born or not. To them, people are just an accident of random chemical reactions. Their expressed concern about school children is a ruse to gain control over their fellow bags of random chemical reactions.Then, paradoxically, they urge radical actions that are allegedly necessary to prevent the extinction of these meaningless chemical anomalies.
The argument is good, in principle. The critic might say it doesn’t work because there’s no really important reason to have a gun, but abortions can be critically important for some women (by their definition of “important”). Gun ban proponents don’t typically identify with the many reasons why people choose to own guns. Worse, though, is that abortion-right advocates don’t really identify with the idea that the unborn is an intrinsically valuable person whose life they are eager to save, like the gun victim. The crux of the debate is really over the nature of the unborn. If it is a valuable human person, then no justification for abortion is warranted (other than edge-case mortal danger to the mother). If it is not a valuable human person, then no justification for abortion is needed.
Saving one person by taking everyone’s guns away is more important than over 50 million aborted babies to date. Yup, no hypocrisy there! Maybe if we stopped being so self-absorbed as a culture, more babies would live and people wouldn’t get shot.
What’s funny about all of this is that when I was young, students actually brought their guns to school (to go hunting afterwards), but no one ever thought it was okay to shoot someone, and there were no school shootings anywhere.
Even the CDC, in a study paid for by the Obama administration, determined that Guns reduce violence 2.5 times more than they cause it. Essentially, banning guns could hurt 2.5 people to every one they save. https://www.nap.edu/read/18319/chapter/1
In contrast, banning abortions could save up to 100% of aborted babies annually.
#BanAbortionsNotGuns
Brace yourself this is going to sound really horrible. I don’t think we should ban guns if it only stops one school shooting. In my opinion many mire people will die without people with guns to protect them. Okay, I said it now crucify me if you like.