On Nov 13, 2008, at 11:49 PM, David Cake wrote: > I'm not saying that my opinions about guns are any more > objective -- just pointing out that if you aren't brought up with US > gun culture, emotive arguments based on it tend to have exactly the > opposite effect.
The "US gun culture" is largely a media stereotype with little basis in reality. Both vice-president elect Biden and several of the Democratic senators are self-professed gun enthusiasts. My most successful day collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that the local media labeled "socialist" was at a gun show. Remember these guys? <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE2DB1039F936A35754C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 > These were the terrorists that I 'palled around' with. Actually 6748 W. Shangri-La is in my neighborhood and one of them was a janitor where I worked. I knew him slightly. Notice that the headline talks about "Hatred Plus a Love for Guns" but the article presents no evidence that militia members hated anybody. I certainly didn't see any evidence of hatred from the member I knew in a racially mixed workplace. I still believe that these guys were railroaded in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. They liked to blow stuff up in the desert and stockpile weapons and drill to resist the world dictatorship that they were sure was going to attempt to enslave them. The thing is, you only needed to have one conversation to get that they only half believed their own paranoid fantasy. They were caught up in some elaborate role playing game. They weren't a threat to anybody. The other side of the coin is that almost everyone who had quasi long hair in the US in the 60s experienced at least minor police harassment and intimidation. There is something scary about armed law enforcement agents because they do consider themselves a group apart and because they can use their weapons without facing the same consequences as the rest of us. -- For blocks are better cleft with wedges, Than tools of sharp or subtle edges, And dullest nonsense has been found By some to be the most profound. -Samuel Butler, _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
