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GUNS

                                             January 10, 2013

Let's go over my old Grand
Treatise on the great gun            'Tis a subject I feel
control problem, in outline:         completely talked-out on,
                                     and yet it's completely
                                     absent from the doomfiles.
I'm largely "pro-gun", but I've
always prioritized the arguments
in the opposite way of most:

  (1) symbolic -- there
  are not many areas          The other major area-- perhaps
  left where citizens         unfortunately-- is car driving,
  are expected to use         and google is on the way to
  power responsibly.          fixing that now via robot cars.

  (2) last ditch defense                                 ROBOT_CARS
  against tyranny.         SECOND_THOUGHTS

  (3) self-defense --
  mostly as a deterent.

     While actual incidents where guns
     might really need to be used for          GUNS_AGAINST_CRIME
     self-defense are rare, hypothetically
     at least, the potential presence of
     guns in any household can act as a
     deterrent.

  (4) target-shooting/hunting:
  they're not my hobbies but
  that's not a reason to sneer.


        I find that while I wouldn't repudiate
        any of these four arguments, on each one
        I have less and less interest in arguing
        it... they all seem a lot less important
        than they once did.


      Because of some cultural
      shift in my attiudes?
                                   LATE_SHIFT
           Because there are so
           many "real problems"
           (i.e. immediate?  Maybe
           symbolic ones that are
           more immediate?).

           Because individual
           freedom is looking
           like a lost cause?      And it's interesting that
                                   there are new areas of
                                   contention for freedom,
                                   like, do you trust a nerd
                                   with access to the internet?







              So all this leaves me in
              the unusual position of
              knowing a lot about one of
              the Great Issues of the day        ZEN_OF_DEATH
              without really caring about
              what happens with it.



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