the borders of freedom

[quierodios]

Someone pointed out this interesting article related to the Virginia Tech shooting: http://www.americanhandgunner.com/CIS0907.html

Thoughts, anyone?

Comments

A tad long-winded, but with much substance

[telsh7]

I think he's a knee-jerk absolutist (kinda like Michael Moore). Half of what he says (although blatantly opinionated) is true, which makes it dangerous, too, because it only gives his side of the story, without acknowledging a contending argument, thereby lulling us into having faith in the other half of his argument. That other half lacked any cited references, and therefore lacked apparent validation. He may be feeding us a line, and we would believe it without question because it's coupled with information that we already agree with- thereby creating a fallacy of "validation by proxy

Re: A tad long-winded, but with much substance

[quierodios]

Thank you for a well-thought-out post. One of the gaps in my education is in the field of rhetoric and debate. It helped me for you to point out the idea of the fallacy, "validation by proxy

Much better thought out

[telsh7]

I like his articles. I haven't read them all yet, but he does get me thinkin

Re: Much better thought out

[quierodios]

I definitely agree with point 1 (and the others also). Who really suffers when you take away the right of honest citizens to defend themselves? It won't be the criminals, I can tell you. Think of the predator-prey relationship, as an example from the natural world. Do predators attack the strong, the alert, or the well-defended? In most cases, no, they go after the easiest quarry: the defenseless, the young, the old, and the weak. As I write this, I think of a recent news article about a teenager who used a samurai sword to scare off 1 or 2 adult robbers who'd broken into his house, protecting his younger sister and himself.

I think I agree with your assessment of humanity as a whole. Though our mobile/technological age has eroded some of our human connections, I would say most people want to live in peace with their neighbors, and may be willing to lend a hand if a neighbor is in trouble. Most citizens are responsible enough to exercise sound judgment with lethal weapons.