Gun Rights Fit in With Liberal Ideals

[gdcleanfun]

Gun Rights Fit in With Liberal Ideals

Published by the LearnAboutGuns.com Author on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 12:33 am
LearnAboutGuns.com

Although anti gun rights laws are often associated with Democratic or liberal politicians, the idea of gun rights actually fit in with liberal values.

Racial Equality
Liberals place a particular emphasis on racial equality. Anti gun rights laws originated as a means of keeping recently freed slaves from being able to defend themselves or challenge their continued status as 2nd class citizens. Today, gun control laws predominantly affect law abiding citizens living in urban areas, which means there is a disproportionate effect upon racial minorities. Other gun bans target public housing, with a similarly disproportionate effect. Worst of all, gun bans prevent racial violence victims from defending themselves against their often armed attackers.

Gender Equality
Liberals also place an emphasis on gender equality. Gun rights go hand in hand with this struggle, while gun control serves to disproportionately disadvantage women. That is because, as a matter of biology and/or cultural norms, women generally tend to be less physically strong then men. That means that even if gun bans worked (which they don’t), an unarmed woman can usually be overpowered by an unarmed man. An armed woman, however, is able to defend herself against a stalker breaking into her bedroom, or home invaders while pregnant. Furthermore, many women (such as my girlfriend) are more sensitive to recoil then most men. That means that handgun bans and “assault weapon” bans which take away the ability of law abiding women to have a lower recoiling gun for self defense will disproportionately affect such women.

Respect for those in the political minority
Liberal ideology also demands respect for political minorities. For example, gay individuals make up a very small percentage of the population, yet liberal ideology states that the heterosexual majority should not try to legislate away the rights of the homosexual minority. Similarly, gun owners are a political minority in many areas, with gun ownership rates somewhere near 1/3 of all households. Rather than respecting this gun owning minority’s right to have guns for self defense in their homes, some areas have allowed a slim voter margin to take away everyone’s gun rights. It runs contrary to liberal values to allow a majority to ride roughshod over the constitutional rights of a minority.

Equality between elected officials and the citizens
Liberals also rally against governmental corruption, and politicians who hold themselves to a different standard than their citizens. However some of the most anti gun liberal politicians are protected by armed bodyguards at taxpayer expense, while their citizens are forbidden to have guns for self defense. These same politicians will craft special gun amnesty provisions for themselves, while their unarmed citizens are being murdered at an increasing rate. Other politicians will focus on their own personal security to the detriment of their (unarmed) neighbors and other citizens. That is the pinnacle of a hypocrisy.

Privacy
The foundation for many things liberals support, such as abortion rights and gay rights, is privacy. The idea that a woman should not be compelled to serve as an incubator for 9 months is based upon her right to be free from governmental intrusion into her body. Similarly, the idea that consenting adults should be free from governmental intrusion into their bedrooms is based upon privacy as well. Gun rights also fit in with other privacy rights, as law abiding citizens should be free to possess a gun in their own home or concealed about their person for self defense. Furthermore, the current anti gun rights laws are used as a pretext to violate the 4th Amendment rights of citizens.

Self Determination
Along similar lines as privacy is the idea of self determination. This basic idea also underlies abortion rights and gay rights, on the theory that the individual(s) should be able to determine their own course and destiny in life. The idea of self determination also calls for gun rights, as the individual should be free to choose to have a gun for self defense. Furthermore, an armed individual has greater control over their fate when facing a home invasion or other violent attack.

Conclusion
For the reasons discussed above, I am of the opinion that gun rights fit well with liberal ideology. It is a shame that some liberals have decided to fight against gun rights, but hopefully this trend can be reversed.

[NDS]

The problem is that most 'liberals' are not. They are statists who secretly desire a Stalin or Mao to make us all follow the right path as they see it. Coercion is difficult when people possess the means to resist.

Just pay attention to what 'post 20th century liberals' have to say about the founders of the (once up a time it was) Republic and their (now ignored) Constitution. Nothing positive is ever said about them, they always focus on Washington's brewery and marijuana or Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings. Modern liberals live in a world that is completely negative.




Can we criticize 'conservatives' too?

[gdcleanfun]

Can we criticize 'conservatives' too?

I don't see why not. *grin* I like to think that the critiquing of ideas helps us grow and learn. Can we keep it civilized? Sure 'nuf.

[srshadwi]

I'll start by saying I am a pro-gun democrat. I am a firm believer in our entire Constitution, including a very broad interpretation of the Bill of Rights. I don't think I would fall in to the category of "Liberal," but I guess everything is relative. Also, this post is intended to promote discussion and sharing of ideas.

Having said that . . .

Unfortunately most do not view guns and gun control with a clear mind. The arguments made against guns are visceral in nature, they do not hold up to statistical scrutiny and to those of us who believe in the 2nd amendment these people seem to be coming from left field. However, this clouded mind problem is not a trait unique to liberals.

To us the idea that "More guns = More crime" is crazy. Many good studies have disproved this and studies supporting this idea seem to be extremely flawed.

There are similar arguments by conservatives, however, that I believe are equally ridiculous because they are based on values rather than fact. One of these is "Condoms in schools = more kids having sex." Teenage pregnancy is a real problem. The "liberals" handing out condoms are NOT promoting "free love," they realize that kids (no matter what their background is) will make poor decisions and they are trying to do something to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. My point is not to start a huge argument about this topic, I just wanted to bring up a topic that causes a guttural response that may allow some of you to see what you are up against when speaking to the "anti's."

I hope some see a few similarities here. I know some of you will think I am crazy and inappropriate. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Steve

[Cooter]

You can never get two people to agree on every single subject. So this whole idea that you have to be 'liberal' or 'conservative' doesn't work. Each side has thier own set of ideals that most people can't relate to every single ideal of that group. Then we are made to argue with the people of the other political party as a means to separate us, while the politicians get on TV and pander to thier designated party. It's all nonsense.
As long as a person upholds our constitution, and is against giving up our soveriegnty to a global government, what political party they are from is meaningless. Everything else is trivial, when faced with the immediate danger we have at our gates right now. We The People must make our voices heard to our "representative" congress and Commander in Chief, and by any means possible, stop the annexation of the U.S. into a North American Union and eventual Global Government.

Break the two-party-paradigm. Resist the New World Order.