Quote:
Originally Posted by dalmations202
I am not going to prevent a stranger from taking drugs --- just like you aren't going to remove guns from a stranger by making them illegal. How are you going to remove all guns from unlawful people?
Yes, it might save a few lives if guns were illegal because of accidents. It also might cost thousands or millions of lives because guns are a strength equalizer.
Example: I hear women here in America say that they would not ever be treated like the women "seem" to be in some Muslim countries. You know the veil, and walking three steps behind the man, the harems, etc.
Why can they say that? because with a gun, they could kill a man - any man. Without it, their chances have decreased immensely. Women (in general and not any specifically) have the rights that men give them, or that they are willing to pick up an equalizer and take the chance of dying for. It is the same everywhere -- the strong will overpower the weak, IF they cannot either equalize the fight or drastically outnumber the opponent. What do you think these same women would be saying, if they were raised in those countries though?
So when you get to individual responsibility versus collective responsibility -- you get to the point of who's version of "right", when you speak collectively versus the version of "right" seen individually. (History is written by the victor)
Does might make right?
Remember slavery was once legal in the US, and they had the might to enforce it --- so did that make it "right" at that time?
I do not have to agree with the collective masses -- else I become just like the German people during WWII times. I can control one person, myself. I have the choice of either living within the boundaries set by the collective or trying to think for myself, and living/dying with the consequences.
The biggest difference is, I don't fear death.
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I don't disagree with anything you said. However, we somehow got away from what we started out talking about, which was whether there is hypocrisy in gun control advocacy. You were talking about individual responsibility, and you brought up illegal drugs. My point was that once we decide as a society to make drugs illegal, there is no "individual responsibility" you can take on to help rid society of drugs. (Or at least, none that is at all significant.) That responsibility has shifted from the individual to the collective. That is a far, far different thing than shirking responsibility altogether.