But its the countries where they have easy access to guns where most of the killing happens.

I don’t understand why you can’t see that.

Tom, I don’t have any psychological need to “prove” you are mistaken. Even if I did, there is no way I could do so. Political and philosophical opinions are just that, opinions. All our areas of disagreement are about issues where there is no proof and where there can be no proof. I cannot demonstrate scientifically your political ideas are wrong, I can only declare them as inhumane, distasteful and repugnant.

The purpose of political and philosophical debate is not to get anyone to change their mind, it is to persuade those who haven’t made up their minds yet. The very fact you insist on making this some kind of a contest tells me your motives are more psychological than anything else. You need the validation of victory, just like a preacher needs to save souls. You set up a game I feel foolish playing and you comfort yourself by my refusal to do so. Fine, if that makes you feel better. I will be the first to admit there is no way I can convince you how truly and fundamentally mistaken you are. I just feel some responsibility to make sure no one else falls for your dogma.

Read the essay I wrote on Off-Topic, and my comments to Jody about it. Maybe that can give you some insight into how I think. And if you can’t agree with that, that’s cool too. I can’t argue politics with you any more than I can reason with a Reincarnationist, a Zoroastrian, or a Rosicrucian. There is no way for me to “prove” they are wrong either. And I feel absolutely no need to do so.

To put it as kindly as possible, these questions cannot be settled by reason and debate. You seem to have faith on your side, but I don’t. You know us Liberals, we’re just not as convinced of our correctness as Conservatives are of theirs.

Regardless of the level of proof brought to the table.

We got that, too.

Your “debate” technique is the equivalent of a tennis game where one player sits on the court and chews the ball to shreds. I can’t remember any time you have actually followed a line of reasoning to the end instead of tipping the board over in a bout of verbal hysterics.

If this is “pomposity,” make the most of it.

I’m really looking forward to watching you try to disprove that statement.

“We’ve gone over”…you pompous blowhard. Tom, when you “go over” something you are expressing an opinion, not establishing the truth. There is a difference, you know?

Which groups were being blamed and why, and what the proposed solutions were.

You weren’t interested.

“You have a huge number of trailer trash rednecks who are just dying to have a legitimate excuse to shoot themselves a nigger.”

This is the level of intellectual debate you’re operating on. We got that.

It won’t be brought by jack-booted troopers knocking down doors in the middle of the night. That comes later when they are consolidating power.

Fascism will come the way it always comes, by demagogues wrapping themselves in flags and nationalistic rhetoric, telling the middle class that their country has been betrayed and stabbed in the back by traitors and foreigners, by the ungodly, by the unpatriotic.

They will exploit the dread of those who feel their future slipping away from them, and offer them a quick fix based on hate and fear and ignorance and greed. Right now, it sounds like the program is right on schedule, too. That’s what’s got people like myself and Robert scared shitless.

And the brown-shirted, jack-booted troopers will not be socialists or foreigners. They’ll be your neighbors.

The onset of mental illness occurs between the ages of 17 and 25. Since it looks like AR’s and AK’s are not going to be banned, we should ban their sale to males in that age group.

Apply the same penalties for full auto possession. These fines and jail time deter just about every law abiding gun enthusiast.

Of course it’s not going to stop all but it should prevent some.

That’s funny, because not to long ago you and Robert were regularly warning us about the rise fascism in this country.

And why? Because a bunch of semi-literate middle-aged suburban fatass NASCAR drones fancy themselves the nation’s constitutional line of defense against left-wing tyranny’s black helicopters, light bulb police, and their blue-helmeted New Order mercenaries?

These are spoiled, violent children playing out their delayed adolescence with guns. I am forced to live among them, and told the only way I can feel more secure, (and more “free”), is to go out and arm myself too, just because of their self-serving and totally distorted interpretation of what some plantation owners said two centuries ago in a totally different context? If the founder fathers hadn’t meant “a well ordered militia”, they wouldn’t have said so.

And I’m the jerk? Because I refuse to buy into this pathetic little-boy cowboy fantasy? Because I cannot accept the bogus patriotic bullshit that attempts to justify it?

I’m all in favor of live-and-let-live, but when some thug starts waving guns in my face in public places, I think I’m entitled to a dissenting opinion.