Monday, May 6, 2013

Quote of the Day - Trust and Compromise

Eric S. Raymond considers the gun control debate and the lack of trust that pervades the political landscape:
Any trust that “gun control” will be administered with even minimal respect for civil rights is long gone, destroyed by the behavior of the enforcers themselves.

This is yet another way to destroy the middle. Anti-firearms activists speak of “common-sense regulation”, knowing that the agencies enforcing these have engaged in a series of criminal conspiracies to evade and ignore safeguards against abuse of such regulations. By doing so, they annihilate any trust firearms owners might have once felt that “common-sense regulation” is anything other than a prequel to those abuses.

In the absence of trust there can be no compromise. This is how you radicalize gun owners into the Second-Amendment absolutists most of us are today. After four decades of bad faith the only position left to us is “No more ‘gun-control’ laws. Ever.”
It is very interesting to see the number of commenters who have fetishized compromise uber alles, and who keep arguing that gun rights advocates need to compromise compromise compromise or Bad Things Will Happen In The Next Election.  I guess we'll see in 18 months, but the recent Senate votes suggests pretty strongly that red and purple state politicians see it differently.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That dovetails rather nicely with the Snell essay that's been going around, doesn't it?

Wolfman said...

At this point, there really is no common ground to be had. We've tried to be reasonable, and every effort we have made to educate and encourage has been rebuffed. Write this subject off as a winner take all situation- we aren't willing ti give an inch. By my take on the situation, the most viable threat to our 2nd Amendment is... Gay Marriage. You think I'm kidding? I'm not. The reason its a threat is that many of the people who are most reliable allies on 2A rights have a MISERABLE record on other civil rights. The more the GOP opens its mouth about gay marriage and 'legitimate rape' the more they will lose- and I, for one, will not be sad to see bigotry fall, in this regard. But as gains are made in replacing the ridiculous moral crusaders, we run a real risk of losing ground on gun rights. We stymied this attempt- its time to start grooming the young bucks of the left to support gun rights.

The Forgotten Man said...

When you say yes and I say no, agreeing to "the middle ground" is not a compromise. Its you winning and me losing. We moved the needle in your direction - not in mine.