Monday, June 28, 2010

Guns: The Other Pro-Choice Issue

~I am 'pro-gun', meaning I strongly support the right of The Citizen to own any and all types of small arms up to and including assault rifles. That does not necessarily include light artillery such as mortars and various rocket launchers. For those you should really have a Federal Firearms License. [ok, kidding a bit there, but I know someone will toss in the reductio ad absurdum 'should we allow people to buy rocket launchers too!?' bullshit argument]

For most of my life I have also been what most would consider a 'liberal, leftist, progressive' of various degrees, especially a woman's right to absolute reproductive freedom. I have gone back and forth on many issues, but I've always been rock solid on that one, including once when the child would have been mine and I was fully prepared to 'step up' as a father. Instead I came up with the deductible and drove her to and from the clinic.

I posit those two positions because it has been my experience that far too many people who are also 'liberals, leftists, progressives' of various degrees react to 'guns' in almost exactly the same fashion as many 'conservative, right wing' individuals do to 'abortion'; with utterly hysterical rejection that brooks no argument followed by often furious demands for total prohibition.

I'm not going to debate the merits of either issue here. I am only pointing out the nature of the general attitude toward each and how they seem related....

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