Random thoughts on liberty

I was doing the blog-run a few minutes ago, and via David over at The War On Guns, I ran up on the op-ed piece USA Today's Walter Shapiro wrote a couple of days after the Virginia Tech massacre calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment. But that isn't what got me to put my fingers to the keys today. This was:

Why oh why do you accept that you cannot buy alcohol on Sunday (here in GA), but have an absolute right to buy a gun at the WalMart next door ?

Bit a straw man argument there. I've heard no one accept or advocate the continued existence of the "blue laws" in Georgia or anywhere else. There are probably more than a few of us so-called "gun nuts" who find the fact that you can't buy alcohol in some places on Sundays to be a load of crap too -- and I'd be willing to bet there are those who agree on THAT point who will advocate the repeal of the Second Amendment. Many of us who advocate expansion of liberty in one area advocate that same expansion of liberty in other areas as well. We subscribe to the theory of "trust the people until they prove they can't be trusted, and don't punish the many for the actions of the very few." And by the same token, there's no shortage of people and organizations who hold certain liberties in much higher regard than others. Witness the mainstream press hacks like Walter Shapiro using the First Amendment to the Constitution to shit all over the Second Amendment on pretty much a daily basis. Regarding THAT particular outrage, I keep thinking of the words of the great Bill Whittle (emphasis mine --ed.):

...reality (is) that compassion, culture, law and philosophy are precious, rare and acquired habits that must be defended with force against people who understand nothing but force. The great failure and staggering tragedy of European Jews is that they could not accept that some of their neighbors were not as decent, humane and educated as they were. A culture that learned to survive by turning inward simply never was willing to face the reality of what they were up against...A people of astonishing internal beauty simply could not look into the face of such ugliness without turning away. And now they are dead.
And there are many intelligent, enlightened, gentle and good-hearted people today who believe exactly the same thing. If we let this moral blindness continue to gain ground, then they will get us all killed, too.

I have to wonder sometimes, if it's going to take another honest-to-God shooting war for the intellectual elites to see the folly of their so-called "solutions" to the "problem." I'd like to think it wouldn't, but only time will tell.
Also today, via Rustmeister, we have this from Candy Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, on letting 18-year-olds in the military drink alcohol:

They will follow the leader, they don't think for themselves, and they are the last ones I want to say, 'Here's a gun, and here's a beer.' They are not adult—that's why they're in the military. They are not adults.

Wow, what does one say to that? Follow the leader? Don't think for themselves? I must beg to differ on that point. When I was 18 I had a pretty good idea of who is was and what I believed in, and I formed all those opinions for myself. I wasn't brainwashed or anything like that. I damned sure did know how to think for myself at that age, and even though I am long past 18, I still find Lightner's comment to be a profound insult. The words of Marko Kloos come to mind...

MADD is no longer against drunk driving, they're against all forms of alcohol consumption that could conceivably result in someone driving while intoxicated--which means they're against alcohol consumption, period.

Yep. Just as any organization with the words "gun violence" in its name is at its heart against gun ownership, period. And as you see, MADD resorts to the same ad hominem slurs the so-called "gun violence prevention" groups use. I am not a heavy drinker by any means -- really, if I had to choose to buy beer or ammunition it'd be the latter any day of the week and twice on Sundays -- but sooner or later, if we're going to keep banning people from doing something based on what MIGHT happen, we are well and truly going to be slaves. Even if we're not in chains made of steel.