by Demon of Undoing » Mon May 16, 2011 4:46 pm
"There is no justice , either in or out of the courtroom . "
- Oliver Wendel Holmes
No unadulterated good long survives contact with humans. However , I take it as a given that two things are true.
1) Violent antisocial types will always be with us.
2) Violent social types , when sufficiently able , always outnumber the antisocial ones.
In light of the fact that in America , likely in perpetuity , guns will like the poor always be with us , a calculus must be made. I say that the people lost to unlawful gun violence , whose numbers are likely increased more by the drug war than firearms availability , would be significantly higher were the good guys not allowed the means to legally defend themselves. Remember , 12k homicides vs 2 million lawful uses for self defense. What would be the death total were there zero lawful uses ? I dare say the deaths would be much higher.
Just as a feriinstance; imagine how well a narco group would fare in the US , without popular support , after the police were shown to be compromised , and after the narcos start hanging corpses from bridges. The group would last as long as it took the mob , ern posse to form in the town square. A few house burnings , a couple of AR pistol mad minutes as a guy leaves the theater. Not long. Such is an extreme , but it does illustrate the backstop that firearms create in the US. In the right jurisdictions , concerns about poor police service are much less significant , but only because an armed populace is in place. Stuff like that.
This ain't Lichtenstein.
Don't know what it is, but I'm agin'it.