Posted: 10/5/2007 6:47:21 AM EDT
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Encouraging to see a little progress... --------------------------------------------------------------- from:www.progressiveu.org/011100-the-gun-control-argument-part-2 The Gun Control Argument part 2 To be quite honest, the majority of the response I got to my first blog on gun control was negative and angry, and it got me down quite a bit. But, the majority of the arguments I saw were also better, more thought out, and much more educated than the ones that I had previously come in contact with. It certaintly was enough to change my mind. Yes, many of the comments I received were angry and I would even go so far as to say that some of them were vicious, and I'm sure I'll probably be at least mildly pissed about some of them for quite a while, but that doesn't change the fact that many of the arguments I read were well thought out and did have a fair amount of evidence behind them. Many people gave me statistics showing how other countries have fared under tighter gun restrictions, and it certaintly would appear that the majority of them have had a rise in crime rates. I have also been educated on the guns themselves: "'Assault weapon' is an inflammatory term, referring to the shape of the stock of a rifle. That same action, barrel, bullet caliber and ballistics, in a hunting rifle, with the same semi-automatic capability..." This is taken from a comment tazunemono posted in response to my original blog. Unfortunately, I cannot at the moment find another good tid bit of information, and do not feel like wading through all the anger and the hateful comments right at this moment. One of the good arguments I heard described a theoretical situation which may arise if certain types of guns were banned. The scenario went something along these lines: a couple type of guns are banned, but the ban doesn't work, crime rates rise, and as a response, more guns are banned. This process would only continue to...well, continue along this path. This was probably one of the first arguments that I really hadn't thought of before which didn't really include any technical information about guns and stats and whatnot, and it was really the first one that got me thinking. This certaintly does seem like a very real possibilty, and even when I was all for gun control I'd never had any intention of saying that all guns should be banned or restricted, just a few of the more dangerous ones. This argument started me thinking about the various possible downsides of gun control before the others, and probably warmed me up a little to the information the others provided. Yes, I have changed my mind on the gun control issue. I really want to note, though, that it was only because of the responses that were written kindly which convinced me. As I've said many times before, these responses are always the ones most well received - I think that the fact they changed my mind is proof enough, as it is so hard for so many people to change their minds on subjects such as this one. There were plenty of informative responses that were written much more angrily and it was very easy for me to brush them off because they had, in one way or another, offended or hurt me. I really want to stress that, because, in all honesty, the majority of those comments I received were angry and rather mean and made me hesitate to return to Progressive-U and see the new comments. They have also made me anxious for the end of the scholarship contest so that I can stop coming here, striving for points. If it weren't for the more kindly written comments, I can safely say I never would have come around to the conclusion that I was originally wrong about gun control. |