2011/03/10

On Guns and Rights

Matt Taibbi has a humorous take on gun control legislation.  I have to confess that I find the right wing concerns over impending gun control as crazy as Taibbi does.  No high-powered Democrat has even come CLOSE to introducing or supporting significant gun control laws in a long time.  Sure, a few people made some gun control-ish noises after the Tucson shooting, but nothing serious came of it.  The paranoia about gun control is just one more whacked out element of conservative craziness, as far as I can tell.

Having said all of that, I'll also confess that the issue of control is one that leads me to part ways with a lot of my liberal friends.  I'm very much against the idea of gun control.  Taibbi raised an interesting point, which is that gun control makes other encroaching laws (he specifically cites sodomy bans) more tolerable to the public.  That is a line of reasoning I hadn't really thought of, but it makes some sense.

My reason for being against gun control if very simple.  I believe very firmly in the Bill of Rights.  More than that, I think that the rights and protections detailed in the first ten amendments should be interpreted in the broadest way possible.  If there is ever any question whether a government policy violates the 4th Amendment protection against unlawful searches and seizures (FISA and the USA PATRIOT Act, anyone?), I think the policy should be thrown out.  If there is the slightest suspicion that a law may violate any of the clauses of the 1st Amendment, I say repeal it (I include the "fire in a crowded theater" rule on limiting free speech in this category, Justice Holmes' overdone reputation not withstanding.).  Given my view that these rights should be read in the way most protective of liberty and freedom, I could never convince myself that the 2nd Amendment is the one exception.

I believe that liberals do themselves a disservice on this point.  It's a lot harder to convince people that you're serious about your defense of the other amendments when you suggest that the 2nd can be restricted, if not completely ignored.  You're for the Bill of Rights, or you're not.

So as not to beat up on my fellow liberals too much, I'll conclude by pointing out that the right wing is WAY guiltier of selective defense of the Bill of Rights.  The left has one amendment they don't want to enforce.  The right frequently seem to have only has one amendment that they DO want to enforce.

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