I don't agree with your conclusion, but I apppreciate the intelligent arguments you put forward.
Yet:
Well, that's what I call "civilization": problems between people must be solved by law, and if they can't, only those who are to enforce law are to bear arms; the others are criminals, all of them.
And as for "defending against tyrants", well.... What's a "tyrant"?
When I hear "someone" say that they admire a dictator that tortured and muredered hundreds of thousands of people, well I think that I have to update what my definition of "imbeciles" is.
And when a people is a majority of imbeciles, well, they'll get what they deserve : being great imbeciles again.
Just pulling your leg
A tyrant is someone who uses violence or the threat thereof to force you to submit to their authority. Someone who breaks into your home, takes your stuff, and rapes your wife rather fits the bill. I mean, sure, he doesn't have the veneer of government authority, but that's about it when it comes to differences. Putting a metaphorical boot up their ass and a literal bullet in their vitals is something of an American tradition, admittedly one we've sorely neglected in favor of electing them in recent years.
What can I say? Our general public wants to be more like Europe.
Any personal experience?...
No.
Just fear-based fantasy.
Fear+ gun = I'm big ( I'm a male)
What a funny tiny culture this is where people think they only exist through money and violence. And God!!!
No, no, this is not all the US of A, no no no...
Once upon a time, I was properly addressed as Sergeant Schnepp of the United States Army. I have, among other things, gone searching for IEDs with my boots (didn't find any the hard way, but wore the soles off of 'em trying), made a point to always be the point man whenever we entered someplace potentially dangerous, stood in the middle of the road to stop a speeding car with nothing but a mustache and a
popgun M4, encouraged angry mobs to be elsewhere with the same (seriously, it's an impressive mustache; the bald-faced kids weren't getting the job done), and taken a leisurely stroll down to the airstrip while the base was being mortared because I'd (rightly) judged based on the sound and feel of the explosions that the enemy was nowhere near dialing in a hit. The rest of the fobbits were losing their shit because, y'know, someone was chucking bombs at them. Me? I gave no fucks because
I had been an artilleryman, and wasn't the mortar made that had the guts to land anywhere near my blast radius knew what it sounded like when the incoming fire became something I had to be concerned with (it's when you
don't hear the mortars).
Lastly, I cussed a general out. Nobody wears headgear on my flightline.
Nobody. (The funniest part is that's not the first time someone with stars on their chest got chewed out by someone with stripes on theirs on that flightline. You'd think they'd learn...)
Oh, and in my civilian life I've had assholes pull guns on me. My favorite was the old fart who thought the appropriate reaction to a fender-bender was to go get his (if you'll pardon a nontechnical term) assault rifle out the back of his pickup. Pretty sure it was an AR-15-series, but to be honest I wasn't exactly looking at the thing too closely. It's not the gun that kills you, it's the man wielding it - and for some unknown reason I wasn't keen on taking my eyes off this bastard. He changed his mind when I pointed out that there were a lot of witnesses, I was unarmed, and he'd been dim enough to let me get within arm's reach.
Less favorite is my stepfather committing suicide by firearm shortly after he attempted to kill my mother.
You might say I have a bit of experience with weapons being misused. I said personal experience shouldn't be relied upon, not that I didn't have any. Not many people who know me would call me a coward, nor think I consult my fears when I make decisions... particularly when I'm saying we ought to do just the opposite.
But I suppose it's simply easier to dismiss someone disagreeing with you as being a deluded hypocrite and tilt at strawmen instead.
