The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

David Stockhoff · 04 Jul 2010, 03:30 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:30:13 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <147808.2847.qm at web50702.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
References: <536855.45031.qm at web58204.mail.re3.yahoo.com>	<152912.32332.qm at web50703.mail.re2.yahoo.com>	<AANLkTimLwz5MVRRSEMYT-l3tQ88GPbCglW1_k0Y4aYuk at mail.gmail.com>	<4C2FACE5.3000206 at verizon.net>	<AANLkTimEQe_B5Ln1j-oLxwPh8yChMKxI3nRY2SYuFtJC at mail.gmail.com>
	<147808.2847.qm at web50702.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4C300045.90909 at verizon.net>

Of course that's rather a silly question to ask people in a survey: are 
guns A-OK, or should only the army and police have them---even pistols, 
that favorite weapon of well-regulated militias?

It is useless in determining whether people actually think the state 
must allow citizens to carry concealed handguns into nightclubs or onto 
trains, planes, and taxis or into supermarkets, schools, churches, and 
libraries in gun-crime-plagued cities far from their own homes.

One may as well ask: should people be required to educate themselves 
before they earn the privilege of voting, or should the government 
assign votes to each citizen?

Furthermore, I am quite sure a similar majority of Americans believe 
that handguns are good for self-defense. I'm all for self-defense and 
(registered) gun ownership, but the two have little to do with one another.

Jerry Friedman wrote:
> *From:* John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>:
> >On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 5:34 PM, David Stockhoff 
> <dstockhoff at verizon.net <mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net>> wrote:
> >>John Watkins wrote:
> >>>On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 4:49 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>
>         >>>>   I'm not going to get into a debate on the correct
>         reading of the
>         >>>>Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but I think it's
>         >>>> possible that Wolfe is participating in the decades-old
>         debate on
>         >>>> American gun-ownership laws.  His apparent view isn't
>         unusual or
>         >>>> surprising, but I think it's worth our discussion.
>
>         >>> To the extent that Gene Wolfe expresses sympathy with the
>          view of the majority of
>         >>> Americans as to gun ownership, I agree that there's very
>         little "unusual" or "surprising"
>         >>> about that.
>          
>         >> What view is that, exactly?
>
>         > That the right of the citizenry to possess weapons should be
>         relatively unencumbered.
>
>         Here's an opinion poll from 2008.
>
>         http://www.gallup.com/poll/108394/americans-agreement-supreme-court-gun-rights.aspx
>
>         I suspect Wolfe was in the 11% who thought gun laws should be
>         less strict than they were in 2008.
>
>         Jerry Friedman can't figure out how to get rid of those
>         vertical lines.
>
>
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