HelixDab2
Do you think the right to own a gun is more real than the right to drive a car?
Yes. One is part of our constitution, and is recognized as fundamental to having freedom at all. The other is convenient and necessary for modern life in the US, but the need could be eliminated through appropriate public policy.
I argue that the moral and ethical right comes from the right to defend your own life (and the lives of others) and freedom, with violence if necessary. If you accept that you have that right, then accepting that people have the right to use the most effective tool for that is a reasonable conclusion. Some countries do not recognize that the individual has the right to defend themselves; those countries tend to also prevent citizens from owning pepper spray and tasers, since those can both be lethal.
If you can’t pass a safety test, you shouldn’t have a gun.
That I would oppose. Once you start creating standards for the exercise of rights, it becomes very, very easy to set the standards high enough that it’s functionally impossible to pass. We’ve already seen that kind of nonsense with literacy tests for voting in the south after reconstruction. I support making people sit through training, but I would oppose requiring passing a test.
I don’t want other people around me to be lethally armed.
I understand where you’re coming from, because I know a lot of dumb people that are armed, and I’ve met more than a few people that I wouldn’t personally trust with a gun. I had a college roommate that shot himself in his hand because he was fucking around with his handgun without, y’know unloading it. On the other hand, I’ve also lived in a city, and I lived in really shitty parts of that city (specifically, I lived in Chicago; I lived in Little Village half a block south of Douglas Park, Humboldt Park before gentrification started, and Austin). I’ve had experiences with the CPD that made me very, very aware that they were not going to be there to help me if anything happened. I had someone spend ten minutes trying to kick my front door in, and cops just… Didn’t show up. My now ex-wife called and said there there was a “domestic” ongoing (e.g., she was saying I was trying to kill her), and cops didn’t even show up for over 45 minutes. Where I currently live, cops are at least ten minutes away, and that’s if they are willing to drive 80mph on mountain roads. Fundamentally, cops can’t protect you, and if you aren’t white and don’t “respect their authority”, they probably won’t try.
…But I think that most of those things can be addressed culturally and economically rather than through additional legislation restricting rights. Violence is, more often than not, an issue related to–but not directly caused by–poverty and opportunity.
I’m generally in favor of the fewest possible restrictions; I’d rather change the cultural attitude and situations that lead to violence in the first place than restrict the tools that people use. Cramming tons of poor people with no hope for a better future into a very small area, for instance; that’s a pretty solid predictor of bad outcomes.
First, I think that any costs associated with laws on gun ownership should be covered by income and wealth taxes. (I also think that state and national parks should be funded the same way; I oppose fee-based gov’t services. It’s it’s a public good that the gov’t should be performing, then it should be fully funded.)
I would absolutely favor mandatory training for people that wanted to own firearms, but I’d also make sure that training was on-demand, easily accessed, and paid for by income taxes and not fees. (So, like, Cook County, IL couldn’t have only one class every month that meets 30 miles east of O’Hare at 3:30am on Tuesday morning, with a maximum of five spots open, all to make sure that very, very few people can legally own firearms.) I do generally think that people should know under what circumstances they can legally use lethal force, and I’d support free–as above–classes for anyone that wanted a carry permit. Carry permits should be free to people that have attended the classes. I support free universal background checks on all firearm transfers. I’d have to consult with how to make background checks on private transfers work, because I wouldn’t want Joe Schmoe holding onto a 4473 that I filled out–too much personal information–but I also don’t want the gov’t having a database of all private transfers that would become a de facto registry.
I’m generally in favor of removing the rights from someone once they have been convicted of a violent offense, but not usually otherwise. (I think that ‘violent offense’ would need to be carefully defined so that states couldn’t e.g. redefine speeding as a violent offense.) I think red flag laws might be a good idea–people planning acts of mass murder usually ‘leak’ information in the days or weeks prior–but the way they’re currently implemented is not good at all, and it can take months to get your rights back.
I’m an ex-Mormon and Satanist, I’m largely a socialist, I am very pro-gun and would support revocation of the NFA of 1934, and also pro LGBTQ+, feminist, pro-abortion, in favor of raising top marginal tax rates to 95%, instituting wealth taxes on total assets owned or controlled in excess of $100M (and total seizure if convicted of trying to conceal the ownership), support revoking corporate personhood through constitutional amendment, I’m in favor if widespread public transit, and favor taxing oil companies out of existence to pay for it, support Ukraine without reservation, blah blah blah.
I am unelectable for any political party in the US.
Yes. Although automatic transmission is more efficient, I still prefer manual.
Almost 50. Southern US. I use one every day that I ride my motorcycle.
Russia has been beaten by most of the smaller countries that it’s gone toe-to-toe against. The only particularly big win that Russia (or the USSR) has had in the past century was WWII, and that was because the USSR was getting an enormous amount of material assistance from… The US. source Russia’s aggressive actions against the Baltic countries are precisely why Estonia, Latvia, etc. joined NATO. And countries have to ask to join NATO. Without Russian aggression, there is no NATO.
I would absolutely line up to be assimilated. I’d be guaranteed a job that mattered, I’d always be with family and friends, I’d be part of a group that was always working towards a common goal, and I’d be happy; the borg that are disconnected from the collective are clearly deeply distressed by the experience. Plus, I’d be stronger and more capable as a borg than I can even imagine right now.
As long as people are making the choice to join the collective, why is it anyone else’s business?