Semantics as Assault Weapons in the Gun Control Debate

[eswrite]

Semantics as Assault Weapons in the Gun Control Debate

[colossians323]

but one of those looks really really scary..................if you're wascist

[Kyle1886]

Obviously none of those pictured would ever be a "defensive weapon".

A claw hammer drives nails, but also pulls nails. So which is it a driver or puller of nails? ( I know poor analogy).

Kyle

[eswrite]

Obviously none of those pictured would ever be a "defensive weapon".

A claw hammer drives nails, but also pulls nails. So which is it a driver or puller of nails? ( I know poor analogy).

Kyle

Didn't you know? The military abandoned defensive tactics and strategy somewhere between WWII and Desert Storm. It's all shock and awe now, baby.

[njineermike]

The first human who threw a rock used the very first assault weapon of his day.

[DaveInOroValley]

The first human who threw a rock used the very first assault weapon of his day.

Except in what was to be California. They had a limit of no rock could weigh over ten ounces, so no one would be hurt.

[eswrite]

Except in what was to be California. They had a limit of no rock could weigh over ten ounces, so no one would be hurt.

And they had a ten rock limit... because ten is such a magical number.

[KT_SF]

Keep in mind that a lot of Liberal/Progressives were English majors in college, so they love to play semantics games to suit to their political agenda.

Besides "assault weapon" in lieu of modern sporting rifle, they are trying to rename ordinary prostitution (a.k.a. the oldest profession) into scary-sounding "human trafficking", and illegal aliens (i.e. criminal non-Americans) as oppressed "undocumented immigrants"; and pro-abortion (or pro-baby-murder) is "pro-choice" to them and their media lapdogs.

Unfortunately for those Liberal/Progressives, Lincoln was correct in his observation re the ability to fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

KT

[ECG_88]

I feel like your article was too short. I liked where it was going, but you should have expanded on the modern infantry thing more. Perhaps explain how the gap in parity of force between the citizens and the standing army has widened significantly since the revolution.
Back then, the point of the 2nd amendment was to give the same arms as the government to the people so that the government would never have an overwhelming advantage. That way, no government would be able to enslave the people through military force.
With that point, AR-15s are the civilian equivalent to the military M16. Full auto is a controversial subject I will leave for another discussion, but even in semi the AR15 will hold it's own. Most soldiers don't fire in auto anyways unless they are suppressing a position. It wastes ammo and is not accurate enough to be efficient.
But going back to my point about disparity of force between the government and the people. I feel that most liberals/antigun people want to widen that gap.

You can ask a few basic questions. Start the conversation with, "Do you trust the government?"
"What do you think of the NSA?" "Do you support the Patriot Act?" "Did you like GW Bush as a president?" "Do you support Drone Strikes?" "How do you feel about all this power going to Donald Trump?"
They will probably answer as expected, gov is bad, we are an evil empire, Trump is literal Hitler etc.

You can see where this is going. Then ask about guns. They will say we don't need weapons of war. Compare that to their previous answers and ask how they reconcile disarming a population while empowering an evil empire?

And I love the argument that they give "do you think you will be effective against tanks and drones and nukes?"

And my answer is, "If you think the fight is already unfair in favor of the tyrannical Gov, why are you trying to tip the odds in their favor even more by taking away weapons from the people?"

[eswrite]

I feel like your article was too short. I liked where it was going, but you should have expanded on the modern infantry thing more.

It's always encouraging when a reader tells me I left them wanting for more -- rather than the opposite.

Unfortunately, in the medium we are doing battle in, "long" often turns into "stop reading." I definitely want to do a follow-up piece on the "contemporary infantryman" concept. And yes, the fallacy that our welfare is protected by our giving up of power while the state becomes even more powerful needs treatment of its own.

[Deedle]

The first human who threw a rock used the very first assault weapon of his day.

Or maybe a punch, if we include fists.

[OpenSightsOnly]

[I]

The word "gun" is used by the anti-2A to tag every thing that is evil and destructive.

That word (and the value of the word) is nested in every day language, and people are using that word, on a daily basis, regardless of whether they consciously know the impact of the use of that word.

[eswrite]

Keep in mind that a lot of Liberal/Progressives were English majors in college, so they love to play semantics games to suit to their political agenda.

Besides "assault weapon" in lieu of modern sporting rifle, they are trying to rename ordinary prostitution (a.k.a. the oldest profession) into scary-sounding "human trafficking", and illegal aliens (i.e. criminal non-Americans) as oppressed "undocumented immigrants"; and pro-abortion (or pro-baby-murder) is "pro-choice" to them and their media lapdogs.

Unfortunately for those Liberal/Progressives, Lincoln was correct in his observation re the ability to fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

KT

You are right to point out that much of the culture war manifests itself through wordsmithing chicanery. George Orwell was a visionary when it comes to such sophistry. I love pointing this out to English and Liberal Arts majors alike.

[Wordupmybrotha]

Liberals are scared of black things. But they're supposed to be open and accepting.

[mshill]

Once on social media this exact sentiment was pointed out to me and my response was "you are correct, my firearms assault paper targets, clay pigeons, and steel plates on a weekly basis." It got a chuckle, but that was about it.