Long-time readers of Ten Ring know that I sometimes troll Democratic Underground’s (DU) “gungeon” to see what they’re saying. The gungeon can be an interesting place. In it, a number of very pro-gun people who happen to be lefties argue gun rights with a virtually equal number of anti-gunnies who are also lefties (DU doesn’t let non-lefties post in forums). Sometimes their exchanges are fascinating and sometimes boring in their predictability. Still, it’s worth a look every now and again.
Gungeon denizens discussed a column written by DU’s advice columnist, Auntie Pinko (be sure to skim that thread too). She received a letter from a gunnie who’s become a leftist. Now, it’s possible the letter’s a plant, a phony statement ginned up to gain sympathy for whatever point the writer wants to make. For the sake of argument, I’m going to take the letter and Auntie Pinko’s response at face value.
The letter writer, William, says he was once a conservative, but big-government, big spending Republicans has led him to become a new convert to the left (gasp). However, he’s not given up everything he once believed; he still opposes gun control. He says he hunts and shoots Service Rifle competitions, which helps him stay linked to his service as a former Marine. (m’kay, whatever). He tells Auntie that he won’t give up his shooting or take up skeet, which he seems to feel is a little more politically correct.
Our former Marine says he can’t understand why gun control is a leftist issue in the first place. After all, liberals should oppose big government and that owning weapons is a basic human right. He says it’s why he’s been slow to take the primrose path to leftie hell singing Kumbaya all the way (not exactly the way he described it, but if the metaphor fits…).
To help William, Auntie Pinko tries to find a middle ground. She says her father was a Marine and grew up in a hunting family. She’s disturbed that both sides can’t talk to each other. She gives examples of what she believes are unreasonable stands both sides have taken. Because we can’t talk with each other, she believes we’ve ended up with a strange patchwork of laws that accomplishes nothing.
Her response, surprisingly to me, has at least a few good points. However, she misses the mark on her most significant suggestion. She says that both sides need to compromise. She doesn’t realize, or chooses not to, that gunnies have compromised for over seventy years now. In the 1920s, a kid could have ordered a machine gun in the mail. In the 1950s, one could buy 20mm tank-busting rifles like Lahtis and Solothurns with no questions asked. In the 1980s, I bought handguns with no NICS checks.
Gunnies have compromised. The only compromise anti-gunnies have made is not getting their way fast enough. To give Auntie Pinko the benefit of the doubt, she may not understand the history of gun-banning in America and how much gunnies have already lost. She may not realize that gunnies have drawn a line in the sand and that most of us want to roll back gun control.
Auntie Pinko tries to come up with a fair way for William to continue shooting Service Rifle matches while still satisfying those who find “assault weapons” too dangerous. She suggests that ranges could have a special facility that could lock up individually owned “assault weapons” (all guns eventually?) under police supervision and let owners take them out for practice and competition. I know all of you are cringing at such a particularly obnoxious and foolish idea.
Despite her attempts to be reasonable and to find a middle ground, Auntie Pinko once again proves that lefties just don’t get it. They don’t understand firearms have a role in self-defense, as a protection against tyranny, and as private property. They just don’t get it. And, she’s not alone. Many people, even some on the right, don’t understand that we gunnies are tired of compromise.
Let's let the anti-gunnies compromise with us for a change.
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