When the government is unable to protect its citizens
Well we’ll it’s a government not an omnipotent entity.
and its policies actually foster violent crime,
You mean internationally? Yes…
stable law-abiding people have an absolute right to defend themselves as necessary.
‘Stable’ being the operative word.
Imagine, if you will, a country which had no weapons but they did punch each other in the face when they defended themselves from muggers/intruders etc. Broken noses, fat lips, blackened eyes.
Then someone pulled a hefty branch from a tree and used that to defend themselves, but the
miscreants did the same thing and people were suffering crushed fingers and limbs, painful contusions and even bashed skulls.The government of the time wanted to make branch ownership illegal because of the terrible bruises they were seeing reported, but the
people protested saying they had some beautiful carved branches that were works of art and some used them in vermin control and general farming and even as in special bashing hobbies…The government, fearing losing their position of power, decided on a half-way house and licensed sticks and branches. Miscreants weren’t allowed to have them and the licensing offers ask the applicant directly, “Are you a miscreant?” and if they honestly answered “no” and their faces didn’t twitch or anything, then they were given a license. Of course anyone could see this was a completely ineffective scheme, instigated partly to appeases stick dealers, some of whom were
in the government or related to members or paid it’s members for ‘favours’ and it allowed the people to keep nice shiny polished sticks, some finished in the fabulous N3 Nano Wood Finish, and having such sticks made the people
feel safe and they liked the shiny sticks anyway. Secretly they knew that the meaningless licensing system meant everyone and anyone, including the miscreants could own some sort of stick and the people would have to obtain bigger sticks, but then so did the miscreants and this escalated until….someone, possibly a miscreant, realised they could hammer nails through the stick, coat it in broken glass or wrap barbed wire around it (Lucille) to make them more nasty/effective than the people’s stick. The people felt they had to follow suit rather than asking their government to tighten the licensing rules or even savagely restricting ownership as the had in the ‘mother country’ far across the sea, forcing people, despite their protests of ‘rights and traditions’, and “my grandpappy had a glassy stick and he lived, unscathed to 93”, to give up their sticks. Nasty stick ownership became more widespread, they were used for holding up shops, mugging, and even by organised violent criminals. Some young people would borrow legally licensed sticks with nails stuck through the and take them into school…
Then someone took a car leaf spring, cut it down to a reasonable length and sharpened the edges….anyway, you can see where I’m going with this…(Or I could’ve just said “your licensing laws are ineffectual. The only way to prevent a civilian arms race is to completely cut it off from the source, severely punish dealers who interpret the regulation too widely or even flaunt them, abolish lobbying groups and forbid politicians from having interests in arms sales”. But, some people only understand things via long drawn out fables
)
Some reasonable restriction to ownership and type of firearms should exist I believe, but there is a basic right to possess weapons in the USA.
It should be a
privilege only for those with science degrees and advanced degrees only
When the government can affect society to where violent crime is cut in half, another dialogue on additional limitations can begin.
The assumption here, is that the majority of weapon-owning public are rational, reasonable and able to follow a reasoned argument showing them the folly of their ideas.
After much thought, I am pleased the UK’s weapons regulations are
very tight and getting tighter still. It does mean people like me, have to jump through proverbial hoops for hours on end and endure anxiety and stress in order to have the
privilege (not the
right), of legally owning what are actually very fragile antique items, but if that means I can walk around my streets with a much lower risk of being a victim of violent crime, then I think it’s a price worth paying.
). Aren’t those more incredible than any possible fiction because they’re true? It’s a delicious and nutritious meal compared to cheese cake and we know what happens if you only eat cheese cake - Rand Dump Lot/Darn Mud Plot/Pad Mold Runt/Rand Dump Lot.
