Welcome to the Barricades!
Over at Arms and the Law, David Hardy said this:
Joe Olson and I were out drinking with Alan Gura last night, and he was getting a constant stream of emails from machinegun owners on his pda, denouncing his statement that full auto arms’ possession might not be protected by the 2nd Amendment.
I think EVERYONE associated with this case who knows anything about appellate argument — and I’ve talked to many in that class — agreed that if you cannot come up with a 2nd Amendment test that lets the government do a lot of things with full autos, you lose. That’s bottom line. You can have a second amendment for things other than full auto, or you can have no second amendment. Take your pick, there is no third alternative.
I’d like to suggest that the anti-RKBA crowd has succeeded in doing what they’ve always said they wanted to do: dismantling the “gun culture”. Unfortunately, as well as getting many people to reflexively hate guns, they’ve also dismantled the part of the culture stressing reflexive safety and personal responsibility.
Heinlein’s dictum has come true in reverse: an unarmed society is a rude society. Having declared violence and danger obsolete, they’ve produced a culture of whiny crybabies who think it’s safe to have tantrums.
We now have a situation similar to an overheated car radiator: suddenly take the cap off, and your face is going to get steam-blasted.
If in June the Supreme Court really did declare the entire gun-control legal structure invalid at a stroke, and you really could buy a full-auto M-16 or AK-47 at the corner hardware store, blood really would run in the streets.
Can’t be said often enough: It’s taken seventy years to get here. It’s going take that long, at least, to get back to where we were. And regrettably, it should.
This column from Peter Hitchens is passing around a lot today, and is directly relevant:
Our ancient culture was a forest that took a thousand years to grow and less than half a century to cut down. Now that the trees are all flattened, the people who massacred them find that they are shivering in a howling wilderness that they are powerless to restore to its former shape.
…
They [decreed] an end to “anti-social behaviour” but the loping packs of feral youths pay no attention, and carry on kicking people’s heads as if they were footballs.
===
Related:
In the run-up to the hearing, many people, such as reporters, law reviews, friends, and family, have been looking at real pro-RKBA arguments (rather than Joyce Foundation straw men) for the first time. Not surprisingly, because our side actually makes sense, they’re beginning to come around, and to repeat some of those arguments to those around them.
When we catch them out making tiny mistakes in reciting Holy Doctrine, we flay them alive.
No good, folks. You do not scold a baby speaking her first words for not declaiming Shakespeare.
I have several times now been moved to email people who are, in fact, coming to their senses, the following apology: “Welcome to the Second Amendment barricades! Be sure to wear you helmet and vest at all times, and mind the tripwires.”
[When I originally submitted this reply, it was held for moderation. It looks like I replied to the wrong blog; I made another reply which didn't require moderation. Oops.]