If you haven't already read this post by "George Costanza", you absolutely should. He makes a superb nuanced case for additional gun control (of assault rifle type firearms) by looking at some common and some not-so-common arguments. He does not call for regulating all guns, only assault type firearms.
To summarize/paraphrase the rebuttal:
Argument 1: The right to bear arms is in the constitution
Rebuttal: If you want to be literal, the second amendment to the constitution confers the right to bear arms only to well regulated militia.
Argument 2: Forget literal! What about the spirit of the constitution?
Rebuttal: All rights have boundaries. The right to free speech ends before you can shout "fire" in a stadium or maliciously defame someone. Clearly, the right to bear arms does not extend all the way possessing anti-aircraft missiles, tanks or chemical weapons.
Argument 3: Guns don't kill, people do. Should you ban all baseball bats because X bludgeoned Y to death with one?
Rebuttal: Baseball bats have other legitimate uses. Assault rifles have no legitimate roles outside of battle zones that are not satisfied with less lethal weapons.
Argument 4: If everyone had a concealed weapon, these psychotic killers could be stopped before they did much damage.
Rebuttal: You mean in a crowded, chaotic environment, with the perpetrator wearing a bulletproof vest? Really?
Argument 5: Regulation wouldn't help. The bad guys would get the bad stuff anyway.
Rebuttal: It would at least deter some psychotics from walking to the nearest KMart to get one. Also, see #2: we already regulate/ban some types of particularly harmful weapons.
To summarize/paraphrase the rebuttal:
Argument 1: The right to bear arms is in the constitution
Rebuttal: If you want to be literal, the second amendment to the constitution confers the right to bear arms only to well regulated militia.
Argument 2: Forget literal! What about the spirit of the constitution?
Rebuttal: All rights have boundaries. The right to free speech ends before you can shout "fire" in a stadium or maliciously defame someone. Clearly, the right to bear arms does not extend all the way possessing anti-aircraft missiles, tanks or chemical weapons.
Argument 3: Guns don't kill, people do. Should you ban all baseball bats because X bludgeoned Y to death with one?
Rebuttal: Baseball bats have other legitimate uses. Assault rifles have no legitimate roles outside of battle zones that are not satisfied with less lethal weapons.
Argument 4: If everyone had a concealed weapon, these psychotic killers could be stopped before they did much damage.
Rebuttal: You mean in a crowded, chaotic environment, with the perpetrator wearing a bulletproof vest? Really?
Argument 5: Regulation wouldn't help. The bad guys would get the bad stuff anyway.
Rebuttal: It would at least deter some psychotics from walking to the nearest KMart to get one. Also, see #2: we already regulate/ban some types of particularly harmful weapons.
2 comments:
All the arguments have clarified most of the queries in my mind
All the arguments have clarified most of the queries in my mind
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