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Liberals Need Not Fear the Right to Bear Arms
Daily Nexus (Univ. of Calif. Santa Barbara) ^ | 6/7/07 | Michael Helmeste

Posted on 06/08/2007 9:43:45 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim

I’m a liberal. My voting record is largely Green Party and Democrat. I’m a strong environmentalist - I respect and treat all life equally. I think equal opportunity is a good concept, and I view our international policy with distaste.

I’m also a gun collector and strong proponent of the Second Amendment.

People have been misled to think that guns are a Republican thing. That’s unfortunate. Gun ownership is the most liberal thing I can imagine. It’s about keeping power in the hands of the people instead of being exclusively the tools of government and the rich. It’s about equality, letting an old woman defend herself as well as a bodybuilder. It’s about being able to protect not only the people that are important to us but the rest of our freedoms as well.

In an effort to garner votes, the Democrats have used guns as a scapegoat like the Republicans have used terror. They’ve created boogymen like “assault weapons” to convince constituents something is being done about the fundamentally human problem of violence. By banning guns, Democrats want you to believe something is being done to bring down crime. Do you know the definition of assault weapon? It’s not a machine gun. It’s a gun that has features like a grip that protrudes from the bottom or a bayonet lug. When’s the last time anyone was bayoneted? Another sensationalized item is hollow point ammo - bullets that flatten when they hit something. The police switched to hollow points because the alternative, round bullets, had a tendency to go straight through objects, ricochet and they also require a greater number of shots to stop attackers.

Guns aren’t even the most damaging method of killing. In the Happy Land Fire, a man killed 87 people with one dollar’s worth of gas. The record number of deaths at a school is held by a person with a bomb, not a gun. A nut job with a car in a crowded area can do more damage than a man with a bag full of guns. Where’s our gas licensing? Let’s ban cars. Americans understand cars; not many understand guns because they’re getting their information from a media that loves to sensationalize. You hear about one psychopath killer, but not about the thousands of people who were saved from being murdered or raped.

Guns are the best tools we as citizens have for defense. Not only has the Supreme Court ruled that police have no obligation to protect individuals, but it’s a physical impossibility for police to be there at all times. We shouldn’t rely on others for self-defense.

Guns also protect our freedoms. They ensure that, if necessary, the people have means to offer resistance to rogue authority. It wasn’t long ago that rogue police officers, after illegally disarming the citizenry, took advantage of Hurricane Katrina to steal much-needed food and supplies. A liberal should know that authority figures commit crimes every day. If we take physical power away from the people, what’s left to balance against governmental abuse? If we take guns away from the people, only criminals and the government will have them.

Banning guns to reduce violence is like playing Whac-A-Mole, remove one weapon and another will pop up. People have one less way to hurt each other out of billions. Unfortunately the unique benefits guns provide are gone, along with the lack of shootings, and there’s no replacing them.

It’s a citizen’s duty to vote with an informed understanding. Next time you see a gun control bill, don’t agree because it looks like common sense. Take the time to educate yourself on the terms, try substituting “gun” for “car” to remove an emotional bias. Place Second Amendment infringements in the context of better understood ones. Should we ban Ferraris because they’re too fast for normal citizens, or revolutionary texts because they’re too powerful? Go to a range and try out a gun. How could someone who’s never shot a gun dictate what types are and aren’t allowed?

Bearing arms is a constitutional right. It’s an empowerment of the citizenry that, like free speech, must be preserved for the most dire circumstances, lest we find it gone when we most need it. Let’s not define a freedom by its abuse, and let’s not give it up just because we don’t understand it.

[Michael Helmeste is a UCSB staff member.]


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: armedliberal; banglist; rkba; secondamendment
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1 posted on 06/08/2007 9:43:48 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
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To: kiriath_jearim
Sounds like the author still uses the original definition of "liberal".
2 posted on 06/08/2007 9:45:43 AM PDT by TChris (The Republican Party is merely the Democrat Party's "away" jersey - Vox Day)
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To: kiriath_jearim

A conservative in the making. All he needs is to get mugged a time or two and the change will be complete.


3 posted on 06/08/2007 9:45:51 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire, but I swear I didn't see it in my rear view mirror.)
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To: kiriath_jearim
A liberal who gets it. I really appreciate it when some can write intelligently in support of the RKBA. Great stuff!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

4 posted on 06/08/2007 9:46:00 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: kiriath_jearim

The author is deeply confused. If he were truly in favor of gun ownership as he says he is he would re-think his other positions — particularly environmentalism. The modern enviro movement is all about removing power from the individual to supernational authorities who will dictate how we live.


6 posted on 06/08/2007 9:48:25 AM PDT by Tallguy (Climate is what you plan for, weather is what you get.)
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To: kiriath_jearim

I went to the site and there was another commentary quite critical of the immigration bill. And this from one of California’s most liberal schools. There may hope for our future yet.


7 posted on 06/08/2007 9:48:49 AM PDT by Red Boots
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To: kiriath_jearim

I hope for his sake he is tenured


8 posted on 06/08/2007 9:50:45 AM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: Tallguy
The modern enviro movement is all about removing power from the individual to supernational authorities who will dictate how we live.

Bears repeating!

9 posted on 06/08/2007 9:52:13 AM PDT by agere_contra
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To: kiriath_jearim; LS
That's my alma mater! And no folks, it's not all fruits and nuts in Santa Barbara - here's a photo from our college marksmanship program at Winchester Canyon Gun Club to prove it!


10 posted on 06/08/2007 9:54:56 AM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: kiriath_jearim
The most dangerous Democrats are the pro RKBA ones; I hate to say it but there are a LOT of people who ONLY vote Republican because the Democrats are stuck on stupid WRT RKBA. A lot of my family is strongly union and I do not know, in the flesh, a single person who would not be, by FR standards, a ‘rabid’ enviro; anyone in my neck of the woods who questioned ‘Global Warming’ or the inherent evil of the internal combustion engine would be treated about like a Holocaust denier

Just my .02 But the Democrats are *SO* out to lunch on guns that they lose many elections that they would win if they bent on RKBA.

11 posted on 06/08/2007 9:55:26 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, Deport all illegals, abolish the IRS, ATF and DEA)
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To: goldstategop

He calls himself a liberal? But he sounds more moderate/conservative than he thinks.


12 posted on 06/08/2007 9:57:29 AM PDT by fightinbluhen51
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To: kiriath_jearim

The Left have never learned that the only way they can repel the Repressive Gov’t in the end is their Right to Bear Arms.


13 posted on 06/08/2007 9:58:10 AM PDT by BGHater
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To: Tallguy

Exactly. I don’t have a problem living my life “greener” (because I’m probably greener than the Goreacle as it is), but I do have a problem with ecotax or the church of global warming.


14 posted on 06/08/2007 9:58:44 AM PDT by fightinbluhen51
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To: fightinbluhen51

I think he means “classical liberal” i.e. pretty much like the founders. The socialists (RAT Party) have stolen the term “liberal” btw.


15 posted on 06/08/2007 9:59:41 AM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: kiriath_jearim

By the by, I’ve taken the editor of the Nexus trap shooting. Her boyfriend helped me get the UCSB collegiate marksmanship program going.


16 posted on 06/08/2007 10:01:53 AM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: RedStateRocker

Shhhh...

Better get that post deleted ASAP - If the Dems wised up...

nevermind ;-)


17 posted on 06/08/2007 10:07:50 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9 (DR #1692)
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To: goldstategop; All

Funny you should say that. I just finished reading a diary over at dKos where Iowa Boy, who at one time posted here as Thomas Pained, has been talking about using the strategy employed in the above article to convince independents (and freepers if he can) to vote blue.


18 posted on 06/08/2007 10:09:23 AM PDT by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: kiriath_jearim

bttt


19 posted on 06/08/2007 10:27:17 AM PDT by aberaussie
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To: kiriath_jearim

bttt


20 posted on 06/08/2007 10:27:19 AM PDT by aberaussie
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