"Why do we have laws at all?" aka Republicans are anarchists

[Smith_3]

A common phrase often heard when there is a gun debate is "if there are laws against guns, only outlaws will have guns."

Now your opinion about guns in private hands may be as it may, but this argument is simply stupid. How about:

"If there are laws against stealing, only outlaws will get to steal."
"If there are laws against driving drunk, only outlaws will get to drive drunk."
"If there are laws against beating people to death, only outlaws will get to do it."

Sounds dumb, doesn't it? Well, it probably is. The answer is actually, we have laws, so we can punish people by a basic principle that applies to all, not by decision of a clan chief. I have wondered for a while where all this adverseness to legislative regulations comes from, that right-wingers show. What exactly is it, that appeals to them, in the tax-free unsocialized utopia they dream of. I think, at the heart of it is that they want a strong male leader who makes all decisions. They don't want a common rule of law for everyone. What they really want is a big daddy who tells them what to do.

[Perry Logan]

1. Also, outlaws steal millions of guns from legal gun owners every year.

[ladjf]

2. Because the Republicans want laws that protect their money

and that allow them to get more. (nt)

[beevul]

3. You do realise...

You do realise that you are comparing this:

"if there are laws against guns, only outlaws will have guns." (to be accurate, the saying is that if you "OUTLAW" guns, only outlaws will have...", I'll assume for sake of discussion that that is what you meant.)

with this:


"If we outlaw stealing, only outlaws will get to steal."
"If we outlaw driving drunk, only outlaws will get to drive drunk."
"If we outlaw beating people to death, only outlaws will get to do it."

You can not very well make the point that anything is dumb, while comparing something that is not inherantly bad, wrong, or improper - that being the gun ownership in other than an outlawed state - with things that ARE inherantly bad, wrong, and improper - those being theft, drinking and driving, and beating people to death.

It only sounds dumb, if you see gun ownership in the same light as theft, drunk driving, and beating people to death.

Do you?

[annabanana]

4. "The rich always get out of paying taxes"

Jr. Pissypants actually said this....

[benEzra]

5. Why do you consider opposition to gun prohibition to be a repub thing?

Nationally, around one in four Dems personally owns a gun (higher in most swing states), and fully half of lawful gun owners are Dems and indies.

I think a more accurate analogy to gun prohibition (which is an attempt to outlaw possession of an item, not merely the misuse thereof) would be alcohol prohibition and drug prohibition, both of which have worked in some other nations but failed miserably in the United States.

If guns were outlawed, drug smugglers could bring them in from Columbia and Mexico disguised as routine cocaine shipments. :eyes:


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Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control