Liberals and guns
Should a good progressive go strapped? Ilissa Gold ponders:
It’s a question I’ve been wondering lately–what if more liberals and Democrats carried? I’m not talking about into bars or voting booths, just in general.
[…]
But I wonder if it’s something that all progressives, regardless of sexual orientation or other factors, have to worry about. The violent rhetoric from the right about rising up and overthrowing the government is growing. Republican leaders are actively calling for a “revolution”. Militia activity has been on the rise in the last few years, and is expected to increase with Obama’s presidency.
I don’t think militia activity is on the rise. Seems to have declined since its heyday. I think press coverage of it has increased. And not all gay folks are progressives. But I digress. Back on target.
Here’s the deal, sparky, violence transcends ideology. There are violent right wingers, violent left wingers, violent people who don’t give a squirt of poo about politics, and violent people of all stripes. Whether it’s violent right wingers blowing up federal buildings or violent lefties bombing police stations. They are there. It doesn’t matter which -ism follows their moniker, they’re just nuts. That’s that.
Still, I think it’s a good thing for liberals to arm themselves and, frankly, I am not concerned what their particular reason or come to the pro-gun-Jesus moment is. I don’t care if you’re arming yourself to defend against right wing militias, rabid hippies, bigfoot, or to prevent friendly fire from wayward members of the Earth Liberation Front and the People’s Front of Judea. I’m just glad they’re seeing the value and self-reliance inherent in doing for themselves. As such, I welcome them into the gunny fold. After all, we have a lot of lefty, pro-gun readers here.
Clenched-fist salute to ACK.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 am
Don’t worry kids, big brother Obama will protect you from us crazy right-wingers. If you go and buy a gun, next thing you know you’ll be daring to bake your own bread and fix your own car. You may even discover the arcane mysteries of wealth creation.
And you know where that leads? Right down the slippery slope from self-respect to self-determination.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
If I do, I will remember that I heard it here first that they make pink Glocks.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
http://www.gregandbeth.com/blog/index.php?action=view&id=2084
Just a friendly reminder that the word militia need not have a negative connotation. Nor does the word militia need imply violence.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
The PFJ? Pheh! Long live the Judean People’s Front!
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Dammit, tgirsch! You beat me to it. And redeemed yourself, lmao
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:25 am
Don’t carry a gun if you are not going to use it. Because …? I don’t know. Only you know whether you will or not. Maybe. And just remember that it’s not a magic wand that makes all troubles go away. All it does is throw out tiny little pieces of metal very fast.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:49 am
“I think it’s a good thing for liberals to arm themselves and, frankly, I am not concerned what their particular reason or come to the pro-gun-Jesus moment is.”
I’m going to give you a big ol’ Amen to that, Brother.
James
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:32 am
Bigfoot would be the least of my worries. It’s more like having a gun to defend myself against all the nuts you spoke about. LOL
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Judean People’s Front?!?!!??
Wankers.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:41 pm
“Still, I think it’s a good thing for liberals to arm themselves and, frankly, I am not concerned what their particular reason or come to the pro-gun-Jesus moment is”
You should care.
Conservatives who carry do so because they don’t want to be compliant victims of heinous criminals.
Apparently Liberals who carry do so because they want to shoot Conservatives.
Ilssa Gold makes that pretty obvious.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Many liberals will be shocked – shocked, I tell you – to learn that they are not allowed to own guns because of their misspent youths. Remember that “no contest” plea to pot possession back in ’77? A deal-breaker, boys and girls. Even a minor criminal record will ensure that your lifestyle remains “gun-free”.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Hey guys, the gun dichotomy is between urban folks and suburban/rural folks. It just so happens that liberals tend to cluster in cities, so it became a political issue over the last several decades, but it’s at heart an urban/rural issue. That is, I betcha that in the rural areas of the country, the the ratio between liberal gun owners and non-liberal gun owners is approximately 1:1.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:49 pm
You can’t hug a child with small arms.
Er, wait a minute.
Scratch that.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I’ll add my “amen”.
I don’t care what the motivation is because even if it’s fear of those scary conservatives, it’s about accepting the responsibility for personal defense. That said, I’d like to think that the decision will be followed by visits to a gun range and safety classes.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
“Don’t carry a gun if you are not going to use it.”
How many folks in Binghamton thought they might need a firearm this morning.
Pass CCW laws!
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
The problem with this is that the liberals who now own guns have not altered their position about everybody else owning guns. Even the more humble libs tend to the Diane Finestine school of, “It’s OK for me, but not for you.”
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
“The violent rhetoric from the right about rising up and overthrowing the government is growing. Republican leaders are actively calling for a “revolution”.”
I don’t know about this nutjob having a carry license…wouldn’t he be disqualified as a paranoid schizophrenic or something? Seriously: “violent rhetoric”? Republican leaders calling for overthrowing the government? If he thinks that a few tea party protests against excess spending constitutes violent rhetoric, he sounds nuts to me.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Considering the last few years, not so sure myself.
They’ll probably fire the first shots citing this silly militia thing and the ‘right wing’ threats. That is sorta their MO. Project their faults onto others.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
PFJ? JPF? Splitters…….
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I used to wonder why more liberals didn’t make this argument. Then I realized that Hypnagogue basically has it right. Owning and carrying a gun (which I do daily) is a huge act of personal responsibility. If liberals start carrying guns (for the right reasons) then soon they won’t be liberals.
Liberals don’t believe in personal responsibility, they believe in government power and control. We can’t be trusted to do the right thing, so gov’t has to mandate the right thing and ban the wrong thing. It’s OK for police to have guns, because liberal politicians can control the police, and the police control the citizens. It’s not OK for citizens to have guns, because it makes them harder to control.
This is basically the argument Ilissa Gold is making. She probably doesn’t really want to own a gun. However, she knows that gun control to disarm the “violent right-wing militias” is not going to happen right now so she’s looking for alternatives. One alternative would be to have a bunch of liberals buy guns (to collect dust in their closets) to “deter” the violent right from trying to overthrow Obamanation. Another alternative would be to try to take over the NRA, as one of her commenters mentioned.
That said, I don’t think anything bad can come from liberals educating themselves about guns.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:43 pm
You want Liberals carrying? Um, wait until they’re shooting at you.
Ask Ilssa.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Several years ago we moved to a rural county about an hour away from the city center, and found that most of our neighbors (that we know of) have pistols, rifles, and shotguns like they have trucks, tractors, and lawnmowers. They don’t discuss their personal arms any more than the other technologies they use routinely.
As for safety, far more casualties in these parts due to traffic accidents, tractor/rider lawnmower rollovers, limbs mangled in farm equipment, and construction accidents than firearms. A large fraction of the male population and an increasing fraction of the female population has military service in their background, and those who don’t have been thoroughly briefed on weapons safety habits and practices by parents or closer relatives.
Once in a while someone goes ballistic and severe injury or death ensues. More often than not the injuries are inflicted by knives or some blunt instrument, or simply getting the snot beat out by some muscular tuff guy with a substance abuse problem. Most of the gun-related casualties are drug deals gone wrong, crimes of passion (or defense against crimes of passion), or some citizen deflecting an attempted robbery or house invasion, the very reason why people who are many minutes from the nearest law enforcement officer most of the time make it a point to be ready as “first responders” if they encounter someone who intends them harm or has designs on their property. But most actual firearms use is target practice, hunting, or varmint elimination.
I feel safer driving around the county or hanging out with neighbors than I do traveling through and working in the city but, so far, it’s been reasonably safe in both places. If that changes, I will definitely feel safer with my well armed and proficient neighbors, than with a disarmed urban population whose law enforcement personnel have been schooled in arriving at the crime scene to take names and gather evidence, and to “wait for further instructions” if something dangerous is still in progress, for fear of lawsuits and being the scapegoat if some politician needs a fall guy to appease a crowd of criminal sympathizer constituents demanding “justice” for their terminated criminal relative.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Jeez, thanks. Now I’ll have to buy another gun to protect myself from liberals.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I saw the movie “Milk” – and when they showed the victims of gay-bashing, I thought “why, they should get guns.”
What, the only rational reason to justify gun ownership is to possibly use the gun as a defense against the “correct” sort of hoodlums?
Let the police and detectives determine the violent aggressors politics from the literature they recover from his body. As for me, I let the M-1 do my talking (Ok – that was from a WWII poster.)
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I totally agree with this. This is why I cheer on groups like the Pink Pistols (gays for concealed carry). No matter what you think about their politics, they have every right to protect themselves against violent attack. And I’m all for citizens choosing to protect themselves instead of waiting for a policeman to take fingerprints and call the coroner.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Hey Libs, please don’t arm yourselves. Things will go much smoother if one side has guns and the other doesn’t. Besides, aren’t you all in favor of unilateral disarmament? Good idea! Go with it.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I have never, in any forum, whether real life, the internet, news papers, none, come across a liberal who knew the first thing about who conservatives are, what they believe or why they believe it. But that’s not the crazy part. The crazy part is that virtually no liberal has the slightest clue about who liberals are, what they believe or why they believe it.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Kind of reminds you of the old saw:
There are Liberals who read Marx and Lenin;
and there are Conservatives who understand Marx and Lenin.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:37 pm
One of the main reasons most liberals don’t, won’t, or can’t own or carry firearms–even at the risk of their own personal safety is because…
…it’s a flat-out admission that conservatives are right.
And that, my friends, is nothing less than heresy. Therefore, ’tis better to die in ideological purity than to live in ideological sin.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
You called it. The Unabomber was no conservative, nor are the so-called eco-warriors who are burning western resort complexes and new developments to the ground.
But I can tell you that I am seeing more people coming to gun shows who probably are middle of the road or even lean liberal, but they are purchasing firearms for their personal safety. Guns were never on their radar before, but now the thought that a gun might be the only thing that could save their life has them thinking, and acting.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I don’t mind at all if real liberals arm themselves. I figure most real liberals are already armed. I’d prefer the National Socialists continue to depend on the State for their protection.
April 4th, 2009 at 7:15 am
What is there little popgun going to do against a well-trained and determined right-wing militia!? Why even bother carrying when some nutjob can take them out from 4 zipcodes away with their 50 caliber artillery that can take out satellites?!
(yes, this is sarcasem)
April 4th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Californio,
Google for “pink pistols”. Some gays have figured out that if you’re a member of a readily-identified and occasionally unpopular minority, going unarmed isn’t the best strategy.
April 4th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Patrick Carroll – The Judean People’s Front is a Monty Python Life of Brian reference. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE
April 4th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Frankly, an armed what-passes-for-a-liberal-these days is a bigger danger to himself and his immediate family than he is to some right-wing militia trespassing nutjob, or that said bogeyman is to him and his. Left to their own devices packin’ libs would close the 52-48 gap on their own.
Seriously, those people can’t get out of their homes without catching their toes in sandal-straps and bumping their heads on windchimes. Imagine them trying to remember if their weapon is on ‘safety; or not, or looking down the barrel to see if a round is chambered. Oh, the hilarity!
April 5th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Dear Lefties,
Please do start owning and carrying guns. We’ve never attempted to take that right away from you, and it’s about time you stopped trying to take it away from us.
Besides, it’ll likely become a first step to greater self-reliance and less reliance on the government.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I agree liberals should carry guns and support the RKBA. They should also oppose minimum wage laws, which create unemployment for 3% of the work force that is actually worth that amount or less, while accomplishing nothing for the 97% who make more than that. And they should oppose progressive income taxes which, far from targeting those who are already rich, actually harms those who are in the process of becoming rich.
In other words, liberals should stop being liberals.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:25 am
I’m for PB&J, myself 😀
Also, what Oscar (#36) said, above.
Is a liberal still a liberal if s/he carries a gun?
April 6th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
The recent murder of four oakland policemen by a paroled crinimal has liberal jerks calling for more worthless and stupid gun control laws as always becuase these liberals are extremly stuipid and rediculous and just plain brainless idiots
April 24th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Hey right wing wackos…i love reading your right wing spin and conjectures about us liberals…Im liberal, packing, and waiting for the right wingers to go beserk…as you always do…
April 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
not me. i do it for the zombies and pirates. mostly the zombies.