Alex, truly I have no desire to misinterpret what you have said. I suspect sometimes that I MUST be misunderstanding some of your points, because they seem so hard for me to comprehend. And yes, I am lost when you say that you are only discussing violent crime, because I do not think that a child picking up a gun constitutes a violent crime, but I took it that you do.
If you read my posts carefully, however, I think I am saying that your views alarm me on a personal level because they are so much like the pervading mainstream view, not that they are the same. To me, there is a difference, and I am not trying to put words in your mouth. As far as my saying you advocate having almost everyone armed, almost everyone will be unless there are seriously enforced laws to the contrary.
This is really different in my mind from you, Alex, going around and arming people. And to me, a society with a lot of guns and a comparatively enormous incarcerated population IS representative of frontier justice. So I think what I am doing is taking your posts as a starting point and then expressing my views, but you see me as deliberately misquoting you. I hope you understand that I would not do that.
We start by disagreeing on the very proliferation of guns. You argue that private gun ownership is a right, and protects people, and I argue that it is not a right, and jeopardizes everyone's safety, particularly since most guns used in crimes are stolen from law-abiding citizens. That disagreement in itself is so broad that I think it is hopeless to think either of us will prevail on the other.
So let's just not discuss the issue again, since it is causing hard feelings, okay? |
