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Thursday, October 18, 2007
Guns, Friends and Fears
Posted by Alan at 9:39 PM
Labels: Armed America, book reviews, Books, fear, guns, NRA, Ron Reviews
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10 Comments:
There are plenty of nutcases in the world, we really don't need them to be armed too. I don't understand the obsession with guns. (I don't agree with wars either though) I've heard people say (well I've seen on the telly) that they have a right to bear arms to protect their home. Now I may be missing something, but even if someone broke into my home, I'm not planning on murdering them.
How many children have to accidentally die because another child innocently played with a loaded gun they found at their home? How many schools have to go through a massacre? How many completely psychopathic lunatics have to kill random people before someone says ok, that's enough. No more.
Guns are not widely available here. Sure, criminals can get their hands on them and that's bad enough but I can only imagine the amount of senseless deaths that would suddenly shoot up if guns were legal here. It's scary. I may be exaggerting or overreacting but it seems like America is full of people who have absolutely no tolerance for anyone that isn't exactly like them. I don't understand why anyone would be prepared to kill another person for the reasons stated. I don't understand why people want guns near their children at all, never mind why they teach their children to use one. I can only hope that my own children never come in contact with a gun, or anyone who owns a gun or is prepared to use one.
Thank you, SweetOne. You'll have to get a real hug from the other Ron in your life. I'll send you a virtual one, anyway.
If the government ever decides to take our guns away, how will they be sure they get them all? They couldn't possibly. You'd have the criminals finding ways to get their hands on one and the rest of us would have no way to defend ourselves. The whole situation is pretty scary.
Great post!
I'm from Canada, and we do have strict laws on fire arms, for instance you cannot register a handgun. As far as I know, the police are the only legal carriers of handguns in my area. Granted there are a lot of nut cases in the world, I cannot condone the use of any fire arm, in my opinion it takes far more courage to attack and defend oneself with only the appendages that our creator gave us then to pull a trigger. However I did like some of the points you discussed in your post and respect your point of view.
Interesting review. I note that you must have glossed over the photos of African Americans with firearms. One of said photos (African American gentleman with rifle, and his dog) is my personal favorite in the whole book.
I'm not goin to dispute your political take on this book. It seems to be, more than anything else, a litmus test on one's feelings about guns. Either you like the family photos, or you find them deeply and vicerally frightening. As far as I can tell the differences between the two camps are axiomatic and irreconcilable.
i'd have to agree with ron on the scariness of the "skinhead". the sort of neoconservative to protofascist views you've read into his appearance and remarks just don't seem consistent with being literate enough to read solzhenitsyn.
from the sound of it, he simply has a healthy distrust of government, though perhaps with a slight leaning towards overly distrustful. the homophobic Cheney-ites you compare him to, on the other hand, tend instead to be too trusting of any government that makes loud enough claims to conservatism. liberal democracy does rely on a modest amount of distrust; that's why we have accountability, transparency, verifiability, and all those other nice things.
maxomai,
As it happened I became so engrossed in several of the photographs that it was not until after I had posted the review and went back to look at the book again that I even Saw the picture or the African American man with his dog.
I suspect you are right that these photographs do serve as a litmus test of sorts. Certainly my reaction was visceral as I suspect was the author's intention.
Striking as the book was and much conversation as it has generated I do find it a bit sad that the book seems to offer no bridge for the members of the two camps to find a way to talk to rather than past each other.
kiwano,
I have plenty of distrust for the government. And the guy with the huge machine gun whose politics I find strange, alien and frightening and which I readily admit I do not begin to understand, scares me badly.
As a conservative friend of mine is so fond of saying, "We call people like these 'liberal' because calling them an 'idiot' is considered politically incorrect."
When I see knee-jerk comments like these, I can't help but agree. The arguments against owning firearms listed in these posts sound like they came straight from (former) Brady Center wind-up drones.
clairec23 says, "Now I may be missing something, but even if someone broke into my home, I'm not planning on murdering them. while completely missing the point that the housebreaker in question probably has no such qualms. Even Gandhi advocated self-defense.
clairec23 also says, "How many children have to accidentally die because another child innocently played with a loaded gun they found at their home? How many schools have to go through a massacre?" The first statement is a "straw man" and could just as easily be applied to cars (drunk drivers) and quad ATVs (which actually kill more by far of all ages per total owned in the U.S. than firearms.) She also conveniently fails to mention the school massacres that have been interrupted because a law-abiding gun owner was present and intervened. Think about the Dunblane (Scotland) school shooting in 1996. What to have been the outcome if there had been an armed teacher or other school official? We'll never know that answer but statistically, some of the victims would probably be alive today. On the other hand, Finland is country of widespread private gun ownership and the recent school shooting in Tuusula is the first of it's kind to ever occur in that country.
Saying that America is full of people who have absolutely no tolerance for anyone that isn't exactly like them seems, at least in this case, to be the pot calling the kettle black.
Thanks For Sharing!!!
regards,
Anime
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