Irrational Fear Sells Guns and Guns Sell Fear
Read Time:2 Minute, 5 Second
From what I understand, the main reason a great many people justify owning guns is that they are afraid — because they are told they are likely to be the victim of a theater shooting, a school shooting or the like and there won’t be police there to save them. Irrational fear sells guns and guns sell fear. Fear is the enemy of reason and fear is not going to provide workable, legal and acceptable gun control.
On the list of what’s certainly going to kill me, murder by firearm is so far down on the probability list it’s not worth thinking about and who has the right to limit my freedom so I don’t kill myself? Is the government the guardian of private morality? Not a good argument, I think.
I suspect that these other rich countries also don’t have nearly the number of indigent, uneducated and outcast people that we do. They have a far better social safety net, free education among other factors. I don’t think we can compare the US to Sweden so fairly. The whole truth is wholly complex.
There are other concerns than “safety first” that are widely held and people have a basic right to hold them. Many prefer the risks of allowing power to the citizen than the safety of a government in loco parentis. No numbers are going to change that opinion or erode the right of the people to feel that way.
If we are to become a country where only the government has guns, the public will tend to fear government by intimidation and since police power and police presence is always limited, will we ever feel safer than if we had the power to defend ourselves, even if it’s illusory? The danger is beside the point, the will of the electorate is primary.
Whether it pertains to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives or drugs or vehicles or private consensual behavior, the arguments from safety and morality shouldn’t be a defense against the power of the electorate and no matter how many fearful people wish it were otherwise those are only appeals to the voters not license to the government.
The proclivity of some liberals to ignore the ethical basis of our government and assume that its power derives from health and safety experts rather than the manifest consent of the electorate scares me most of all and I don’t think I’m unusual in thinking so.
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Thanks very much. But looking at a report yesterday about how the US is more dangerous for young men, I thought there’s some vindication for the idea that we need to look at the causes of shootings and not obsess about guns as though that was the only factor.
Guns are the tool. There’s a lot of reasons why young men are using them.
Well said, every word. You have an uncanny ability to peel that proverbial onion and get right to the core.
It’s just what I said on your other article Mr. Geist. America has turned into a country full of cowboys old man. I especially liked this:
“I suspect that these other rich countries also don’t have nearly the number of indigent, uneducated and outcast people that we do. They have a far better social safety net, free education among other factors. I don’t think we can compare the US to Sweden so fairly. The whole truth is wholly complex.”
You “suspect” correctly, certainly here in the UK.