More from Camille Paglia. A certain reader writes in:
What happened at Virginia Tech was despicable and outrageous. To think that to prevent it or anything like it means that moral women and men should give up their ability to resist these horrible acts, in some false hope that the lack of materiel changes the evil in some men's hearts, is equally despicable and outrageous. - Scott Pacer
To which Paglia replies:
Surely you don't suggest, in reviewing the Virginia victims' options, that all college students should be armed? For every rare instance where an assassin was foiled, there would be a thousand accidents or hothead duels, from the jostling cafeteria line to brawling keg parties. Ideally, college campuses should be gun-free zones, but as a non-gun-owning supporter of the Second Amendment, I also see the injustice in denying students their basic rights as citizens.
I'm a bit ashamed to see Paglia hoist this canard, but we can't all be right about everything. Only the Catholic Church can.
The problem with Paglia's assertion is that it is purely emotional. There has been, I believe, one case of a man using his concealed permit to commit a crime, an extraordinary statistic. My home state of Minnesota recently made it easier to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Despite the cries of despair from the liberals in the media, there were no wild-west bloodbaths after the law went into affect.
Robert Heinlein said it best: "An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."
There is the additional note that aside from being unconstitutional, banning, or even greatly reducing the ability to carry, guns gives the government a monopoly on force. That should never sit well with a libertarian. Despite her affiliation and her brilliance, Paglia is actually further proof of why women shouldn't be given the right to vote. Even the self described libertarian has little trouble giving away liberty for the prospect of safety.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree that concealed weapons permits should be easier to get, but all guns should be registered. If someone with a permit commits a criminal act while using a concealed weapon, they're sentence should be automatically doubled. I assume the comment about not allowing women to vote was a sick joke. If not, you deserve a bullet in the ass.
all guns should be registered...
Why does the government have a right to know who is armed, and with what? It's not as if the criminals are going to register their guns anyway, but this will provide a way for the feds to seize the guns when it becomes "necessary" for our safety.
If you want to double the sentence for convicted criminals, I have no problem with that. But requiring the register of every gun is an idiotic idea.
I assume the comment about not allowing women to vote was a sick joke.
Afraid not. Our liberties are threatened by women's suffrage. Being a libertarian, I value liberty much more than I care about voting, which I don't do anyway. If one wished to preserve liberty, one would do well to prevent women from voting.
Post a Comment