Alphecca

World Gun Control: A Debate

Foreign Policy Magazine is one of those publications written by and for liberals who are convinced that America is hopelessly evil and that only a policy that recognizes any culture (for instance: Those that embrace murder -- suicide bombings come to mind -- as a valid cultural and political code of ethics) is worthy of veneration. So. This waste of trees periodical just published a diatribe against the NRA that says, in part:

In the five years since the 2001 small-arms conference, the NRA has refined a message that experts say is working. Few countries have implemented the U.N.-recommended measures. A report released by IANSA last July concluded that the “glass is still 95 percent empty” for gun control advocates. The same was said in a progress report two years earlier. Given the lack of progress, Goldring says the NRA’s fears of “gun grabbers” are overblown—and the gun control movement is on the ropes. “This is like bird flu, right?” says Goldring. “The concern is that it will start somewhere else and end up here [in the United States]. And, by fighting international efforts, they’re actually fighting the domestic groups as well…. I wish the NRA were right. I wish we were going to see a groundswell of support. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.”

If you asked people in Bosnia, Botswana, or, for that matter, Brazil, what the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution stands for, most of them would probably have no idea. But the unexpected defeat of Brazil’s proposed gun prohibition suggests that, when properly packaged, the “right to keep and bear arms” message strikes a chord with people of very different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, even when that culture has historically been anti-gun. In fact, the Second Amendment may be a more readily exportable commodity than gun control advocates are willing to accept, especially in countries with fresh memories of dictatorship. When it is coupled with a public’s fear of crime—a pressing concern in most of the developing world—the message is tailored for mass consumption. “It’s a very simple argument, simply phrased,” says Mizne of Sou da Paz. “But to answer it, we needed a more complex argument.” So, in exchange for nuance, the gun control crowd loses out.

The international gun control movement doesn’t lose every round. In the last decade, in Australia, Britain, and Canada—all countries where the NRA was either advising gun groups or aiding them outright—strict gun control measures passed with strong popular support. Tight controls passed in South Africa, too, though with greater resistance. But, since the NRA has become serious about pushing its agenda at the United Nations, the momentum for gun control has stalled. The pro-gun lobby, whether the NRA or its locally inspired disciples, works to limit the conversation to crime and illicit trafficking. The gun-control lobby argues that you can’t address small-arms violence without restricting legal access to guns. Thus, the great logjam in international firearms talks. Gun control advocates insist they are not interested in circumscribing the rights of gun-owning Americans. “The U.S. is not actually much interest to us,” says Peters. “We just want to work in countries where we can actually make progress.”

But, when the gun control movement is most honest with itself, it must know that it will never make real progress until the United States becomes a target for its efforts. Around half the world’s guns are produced in the United States, and Americans possess, by far, the world’s largest private arsenal. For the gun control movement to achieve its real goal—restricting the global supply of firearms—the United States must be part of the equation.

If the Second Amendment of the United States is " a more readily exportable commodity" it might be because people around the world have given up on believing that their govenments (and police) can protect them. They have woken up to the fact that in the end, at that bitter moment when some mutant thug breaks into your home, your only defense of your own life and those that you love, such as your family, are entirely in your own hands. Cats have sharp teeth and claws. Sharks have rows of teeth themselves. Some plants have poisons or thorns. Humans only have what they can create for themselves.

Thank God they created firearms.

The -- I'll be nice -- dude (David Morton) who wrote this article astoundingly points to Australia, Britain, and Canada as models of countries that didn't listen to the NRA's message. Well now, Britain and Australia have disarmed the law-abiding and the criminals are running wild and have earned those countries the distinction of -- according to the liberal UN themselves -- the most violent nations in the world. Canada is working hard to catch up.

Anyway, and all of this isn't even the point of what I'm trying to direct you to...

The leftist blog Democracy Arsenal published a remarkably misguided post by Heather Hurlburt titled "The NRA Versus the Rest of Us" which said in part:

Another example of how well conservatives have staked out the terrain at the intersection of politics and ideas: This month's Foreign Policy magazine has a terrific article about the worldwide influence of America's highly influential gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

Author David Morton, writing from South America, depicts how the NRA exploits the dark side of globalization--using shallow "feel good" messages about liberty and freedom to push its ideological agenda--one that allows no limits on individual ownership of guns.

The disappointing part of the NRA is not found in its basic premise, gun ownership, education and safety. The problem for society and, apparently, for the rest of the world is their "slippery slope" insistence that any regulation will lead to complete disarmament. When they decide to take their message international, therefore, the painstakingly constructed and maintained regime of international arms control is threatened. If gun control is bad in America, goes the NRA logic, then arms control must be bad for the world. The NRA and their flacks in other countries claim that gun control advocates want to leave citizens vulnerable to "criminals". Well, in increasing circumstances those "criminals" just might be free-agent or organized jihadistas who want to get their hands on deadly devices to kill us.

So I guess Hurlburts' message is that we should not be able to defend ourselves from these "free-agent or organized jihadistas" because that would save some lives and thwart the UN and the awful NRA.

Read the comments to that sickly post, though, and you'll discover that many are taking her to task including a loyal Alphecca reader, identified there only as "Jay". There's a spirited debate there and we on the side of liberty and rights need to make our voices heard.

So, add your own comments and squash these bugs before they smear across the windshield of freedom and personal rights.

Keep the fight up. "No fucking retreat" is how one blogger once wrote to me almost four years ago when I launched Alphecca.

This is about a human right; actually, a genetically imbedded imperative. Human beings are encoded to eat, reproduce, and protect themselves. These are necessary for the survival of our species. Rights are not subject to opinion, vote, or discussion. Every human being has the right to defend his life. A firearm makes that possible.

The American Second Amendment should (but in many places here in America, doesn't) make that a reality. Fight for it as if your life depends on it. It does. Fuck the rest of the world and what some might think about the right to stay alive in that same world filled with mutant criminals who would prey on all of us or even destroy us because we don't subscribe to their demented view of God and Rights and Liberty.

One last thing that will piss all the liberals off: If the mutant extremist Islamic shit terrorists wants to continue their brain-diseased quest to destroy America; bring it on! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. You and your leftist liberal aplogists will never rule, subjugate, or control us. You are garbage and we are the steet-sweepers. You are in the gutter and we are flushing you down the sewers to where you belong.

Posted by Jeff Soyer at January 15, 2006 07:09 PM