David French - Against Gun Idolatry

[MaverickNH]

Against Gun Idolatry

As American gun culture moves from defense to defiance, it puts our democracy at risk.

frenchpress.thedispatch.com

“…the threat to America’s gun culture comes from the gun rights movement itself. The threat is gun idolatry, a form of gun fetish that’s fundamentally aggressive, grotesquely irresponsible, and potentially destabilizing to American democracy.”

Interesting piece from a religious conservative gun owning journalist - definitely pro-2ndA but jittery about folks wearing tactical gear protesting peacefully with slung black rifles. I myself have my limits on what I do - if I’m joining a pipeline protest I don’t wear body armor with a slung SBR AR15. Outside the NH Capitol at demonstrations addressing firearms issues, I’ll wear street cloths and OWB open carry a pistol. But I’m perfectly fine with others next to me with slung rifles, even if I find a lot of tactical gear a bit excessive myself. You know the liberal media will make a a front page picture of one guy in jeans and a sweatshirt, holding the American flag, with a revolver grip showing from his IWB holster, into a White Supremacist KKK rally, so why not go full-on tactical?

The point being, the Christian Right is a huge voting block for 2ndA issues, regardless of their stance on abortion, education, gender, etc. When a mass shooting veers into the headlines like ts has now, the public sentiment drift towards more gun control comes from both this Christian Right segment as well as the Fudds and suburban gun owners for sensible gun laws.

Do we do anything differently? Nope. What we’ve been doing seems to be working pretty good. Each to his own.

”Destabilizing American democracy”? French might have missed we’ve been teetering on the brink for a while now…

 

[whacko]

"Her view was simple: With gun rights come grave gun responsibilities. One ought not casually own or carry a firearm."

Sorry sweetheart......yes you can.





"it’s hard to think of a time when Americans enjoyed a greater degree of personal liberty to own or carry firearms."

Your not thinking hard enough.....or ignoring facts on purpose. fire arms were much easier to own and carry prior to the 1960s.



"open-carrying during anti-lockdown protests and even outside public officials’ homes. This is when the gun is used to menace and intimidate"

So it's ok for cops to menace and intimidate every day? It's not intimidation bud......its a tool for self defense and if an inanimate object on someone's hip scares you maybe your just a pussy.


"Defiance is different. It’s rooted in the will to power. It is designed to implant fear, not to save lives but to exert control. It contradicts a core value of a classically-liberal society, that change comes through courts and the ballot box, not through intimidation and fear."

Ffs when the ballot box and courts begin to impede on individual rights that's when defiance becomes the only moral option.


This guys a f***ing teatwaffle

 

[StevieP]

Good thing we don't live in a democracy, eh?

We live in a Constitutional Republic, where the rights of one outweigh the wants of the mob.

 

[FPrice]

"Her view was simple: With gun rights come grave gun responsibilities. One ought not casually own or carry a firearm."

Sorry sweetheart......yes you can.

Sorry son, but I have to disagree with you. Which is a polite way of saying you are wrong.

You should consider carefully and understand what you are doing and do it with the utmost safety and respect. One of the (many it seems) is that people no longer feel the need to be responsible for what they do. And they don't want to be held responsible when what they do goes wrong.

With great power comes great responsibility - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[whacko]

Sorry son, but I have to disagree with you. Which is a polite way of saying you are wrong.

You should consider carefully and understand what you are doing and do it with the utmost safety and respect. One of the (many it seems) is that people no longer feel the need to be responsible for what they do. And they don't want to be held responsible when what they do goes wrong.

With great power comes great responsibility - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

At ease. The quote from the article was about training. I mean legally one can casually own a fire arm.....once the gov starts to demand training that's infringement and the start of control.

Also....
Son? Really?

 

[SwampYankee42]

Ahhhhhh modern Christians.
Turning the other cheek all the way from "pride month" to the box cars and mass graves.

 

[cams]

Who?

 

[paul73]

Sorry son, but I have to disagree with you. Which is a polite way of saying you are wrong.

You should consider carefully and understand what you are doing and do it with the utmost safety and respect. One of the (many it seems) is that people no longer feel the need to be responsible for what they do. And they don't want to be held responsible when what they do goes wrong.

With great power comes great responsibility - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I also don’t know why everything got so polarized nowadays.
If you claim a right to own and operate dangerous items - you do bear full responsibility for the outcome. May it be machinery, poisons, guns - does not matter.

Same as no schizoids should be in the kitchen handling distribution of rat poison- same with guns. Dunno what is not clear enough about it. If parents of mentally sick individuals do not know how to restrict access to firearms they have - they need to be held responsible.
And those who say an every schizophrenic has equal rights to be armed as anyone else - is same level crazy.

 

[kalash]

...definitely pro-2ndA but jittery about folks wearing tactical gear protesting peacefully with slung black rifles.

So not pro-2A then.

 

[whacko]

I also don’t know why everything got so polarized nowadays.
If you claim a right to own and operate dangerous items - you do bear full responsibility for the outcome. May it be machinery, poisons, guns - does not matter.

Same as no schizoids should be in the kitchen handling distribution of rat poison- same with guns. Dunno what is not clear enough about it. If parents of mentally sick individuals do not know how to restrict access to firearms they have - they need to be held responsible.
And those who say an every schizophrenic has equal rights to be armed as anyone else - is same level crazy.

If the schizoid takes mom's car and kills someone will you hold the mom responsible for that too? Is she legally obligated to have 3 level security on the kitchen knives as well?

 

[MaverickNH]

So not pro-2A then.

Let’s say 2ndA agnostic then - anyone who doesn’t want to take my guns is better than gun control advocates.

 

[paul73]

If the schizoid takes mom's car and kills someone will you hold the mom responsible for that too? Is she legally obligated to have 3 level security on the kitchen knives as well?

if you have a rabid or just murderous dog and let it roam the street and bite peoples kids left and right - will you be held responsible or not?
it is a same exact deal.

 

[whacko]

if you have a rabid or just murderous dog and let it roam the street and bite peoples kids left and right - will you be held responsible or not?
it is a same exact deal.

You can euthanize a dog. The schizoid not so much.

 

[paul73]

You can euthanize a dog. The schizoid not so much.

that depends.

but, nevermind that - responsibility concept is the same.

 

[MaverickNH]

You can euthanize a dog. The schizoid not so much.

Police euthanize schizoids all the time when they make furtive hand movements towards their waistband and remove dark objects (wallets, phones, etc.) Qualified Immunity, of course.

 

[Spicolii]

I also don’t know why everything got so polarized nowadays.
If you claim a right to own and operate dangerous items - you do bear full responsibility for the outcome. May it be machinery, poisons, guns - does not matter.

Same as no schizoids should be in the kitchen handling distribution of rat poison- same with guns. Dunno what is not clear enough about it. If parents of mentally sick individuals do not know how to restrict access to firearms they have - they need to be held responsible.
And those who say an every schizophrenic has equal rights to be armed as anyone else - is same level crazy.

They do have the “right”. The second you put qualifications on a right it becomes a privilege. IMHO safetyism is a mental disorder plaguing this country. Something men of years passed thought nothing off.

 

[paul73]

They do have the “right”

with any right comes a responsibility.
those who are relieved from responsibilities nor can ever be held responsible for their actions 'because reasons' - those have surrendered (or stripped of) all their true rights.

 

[Spicolii]

with any right comes a responsibility.
those who are relieved from responsibilities nor can ever be held responsible for their actions 'because reasons' - those have surrendered (or stripped of) all their true rights.

I agree with you. Problem is one man with a rifle can never, has never, and will never out do the damage done when the gov’t is the only entity allowed to own weapons. And unfortunately a govt monopoly on violence is the only logical outcome once rights become privileges, weather it takes ten years or a hundred.

 

[paul73]

govt monopoly on violence

an every government aims for that, always. as no baron ever wants to face his armed peasants. some things never change, only the names they have now do.

 

[The5thDentist]

Who?

A never-Trumper fartknocker with an extremely over-inflated sense of self-worth.

 

[mibro]

Mr. French is a full spectrum virtue signaler.

 

[MaverickNH]

The counterpoint:

David French Is Wrong about Gun Culture | National Review

Perhaps it’s not the gun-rights movement that has changed.

www.nationalreview.com

 

[StevieP]

The counterpoint:

David French Is Wrong about Gun Culture | National Review

Perhaps it’s not the gun-rights movement that has changed.

www.nationalreview.com

requires login to see it

 

[Quantavious G]

They do have the “right”. The second you put qualifications on a right it becomes a privilege. IMHO safetyism is a mental disorder plaguing this country. Something men of years passed thought nothing off.

I kind of agree with you there. Granted, there is a place for considering safety in dangerous activities, but the rise of the Safety Officer indicates we have moved we have moved way beyond that point to where safety impedes progress and efficiency.

I am picturing those guys during WW2 hoping off the front of a landing ship with nothing more than a wool campaign jacket to stop the machine gun bullets and comparing it to the tactical team in the texas shooting thread all posed to do nothing in their level 4 armor.

 

[cathouse01]

requires login to see it

Summary of Charle Cooke’s response to David French’s article is that French’s claim that “gun culture” has changed since his Atlantic piece from 4 years ago is completely unsupported by facts. The things that French calls out in his new missive were happening many years before his 2018 Atlantic article. Cooke’s response is that it isn’t “gun culture” that has changed so much as David himself has changed.

 

[pdm]

requires login to see it

https://archive.ph/DYAep

Always check archive.today

 

[VetteGirlMA]

Against Gun Idolatry

As American gun culture moves from defense to defiance, it puts our democracy at risk.

frenchpress.thedispatch.com

“…the threat to America’s gun culture comes from the gun rights movement itself. The threat is gun idolatry, a form of gun fetish that’s fundamentally aggressive, grotesquely irresponsible, and potentially destabilizing to American democracy.”

Interesting piece from a religious conservative gun owning journalist - definitely pro-2ndA but jittery about folks wearing tactical gear protesting peacefully with slung black rifles. I myself have my limits on what I do - if I’m joining a pipeline protest I don’t wear body armor with a slung SBR AR15. Outside the NH Capitol at demonstrations addressing firearms issues, I’ll wear street cloths and OWB open carry a pistol. But I’m perfectly fine with others next to me with slung rifles, even if I find a lot of tactical gear a bit excessive myself. You know the liberal media will make a a front page picture of one guy in jeans and a sweatshirt, holding the American flag, with a revolver grip showing from his IWB holster, into a White Supremacist KKK rally, so why not go full-on tactical?

The point being, the Christian Right is a huge voting block for 2ndA issues, regardless of their stance on abortion, education, gender, etc. When a mass shooting veers into the headlines like ts has now, the public sentiment drift towards more gun control comes from both this Christian Right segment as well as the Fudds and suburban gun owners for sensible gun laws.

Do we do anything differently? Nope. What we’ve been doing seems to be working pretty good. Each to his own.

”Destabilizing American democracy”? French might have missed we’ve been teetering on the brink for a while now…

You know what? If you asked me years ago about guys in tactical gear carrying ARs I would have said why? Today I say, do whatever the hell you want because when push comes to shove no one will be there. F*** the fudds, f*** anyone who says "I support the second amendment but....". I like the people from the NFAC coalition. At least they had the guts to open carry ARs and not there wasn't a media operative willing to say a damn thing. So f em all.

The only reason why the left wing media is pushing this right now is:

1). Their policies are deeply unpopular
2). Biden is deeply unpopular
3). Gun control is on their menu of stuff they want to work on.
4). They are using their tendency towards knee jerk reactions
5). They don't want to face the American people who are going broke paying for $6/gallon gas and insane food prices. So create a diversion.

I hope this guy realizes that the left views him as 10x worse than Hitler on his best day. If the left had their way without consequence that guy would be busting rocks in a gulag.

 

[enbloc]

Who?

Mr. French...

 

[MaverickNH]

America’s Violent Heart

To reform our country we have to understand our culture.

frenchpress.thedispatch.com

“There’s something that’s been nagging at me for some time—and not just when we talk about guns. It’s the constant comparison of the United States to Europe…”American exceptionalism” properly understood shouldn’t necessarily mean, “America is exceptionally great” (though there are many great things about America) but rather quite simply, America is exceptional. It’s different. It’s hard to find a comparable culture…And if profound differences existed 20 years before the Declaration of Independence, they have only deepened and magnified since. America’s population is far, far more diverse than it was even in its distinct colonial period, and there are many ways in which Europe is a poor comparison to the American experience.”

Right observations - wrong explanations. The US is a product of the last ~250yr, which is far different than being warring tribal groups crammed into Western Europe for several millennia, until pacified. Our Founders threw off those yokes of docile servitude to government - we’re not planning to put them on any time soon.

 

[FPrice]

America’s Violent Heart

To reform our country we have to understand our culture.

frenchpress.thedispatch.com

“There’s something that’s been nagging at me for some time—and not just when we talk about guns. It’s the constant comparison of the United States to Europe…”American exceptionalism” properly understood shouldn’t necessarily mean, “America is exceptionally great” (though there are many great things about America) but rather quite simply, America is exceptional. It’s different. It’s hard to find a comparable culture…And if profound differences existed 20 years before the Declaration of Independence, they have only deepened and magnified since. America’s population is far, far more diverse than it was even in its distinct colonial period, and there are many ways in which Europe is a poor comparison to the American experience.”

Right observations - wrong explanations. The US is a product of the last ~250yr, which is far different than being warring tribal groups crammed into Western Europe for several millennia, until pacified. Our Founders threw off those yokes of docile servitude to government - we’re not planning to put them on any time soon.

I don't know if French knows it but he is channeling (or trying to channel) Rush Limbaugh. Rush was the first one I know of to use this phrase about America. But he was careful to add that this did NOT mean that America was better than anyone else, but that we were the "exception" to what existed in other places in that we offered people the opportunity to improve their lot in life.

Rush Limbaugh Quotes About American Exceptionalism | A-Z Quotes

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