hilker:

mikehudack:

This is fundamentally an issue of personal freedom.  I find it amazing that people who want to legalize drugs (a strawman in this conversation, I realize) want to ban handguns.  In one instance you’re willing to accept that people will act either responsibility or irresponsibly, and it’s their problem.  In the other you feel the need to snatch objects out of their hands because they may act improperly.

Drugs and guns both have potentially lethal consequences, but both are OK for society if used by responsible, law-abiding adults.  Intellectual honesty requires that you consider these two issues within roughly the same frame.

And before you say it… Yes, guns are designed to kill people.  Drugs are not.  But drugs do kill people — both the user and people around the user.  Drugs don’t kill people, people kill people.  Similarly, guns don’t kill people — people do.

boutofcontext:

noraleah:… and it is vital that we get a Democrat in the White House before the Supreme Court is insurmountably conservative. Keep in mind, DC is one of the most violent cities in the country. The last thing it needs is a population packing heat.

DC has banned guns for the last 32 years, yet it has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Golly, do you think it’s because of a bunch of fistfights? Thugs who want guns will always be able to get them. Guns in the hands of responsible citizens deter crime and protect society.