No, I'm not going to mention any names or sites. I was in the wrong place, and it was up to me to know that before I signed in. Kinda reminds me of a very embarrassing incident in a gay bar, many years ago. Poor situational awareness has always been my nemesis.
One of my pet peeves, for years and years, is people who bragged that they could carry guns - when hoi polloi could not - because they had wrangled "police creds" for themselves. They weren't cops, they didn't claim to be cops, but they snuggled up to the cops enough that they snagged themselves a privilege others couldn't have. What bothered me, in addition to their usual smugness, was the sense of righteousness they exuded over it, as if by committing that perfidy they had demonstrated what good citizens they were.
You don't see it so much anymore, of course, because it isn't needed so much any more. And I stand by earlier statements that I'm all in favor of the work done (by others, not me) that has caused a startling turn-around in gun laws in the past several years. I honor the work of the people who brought that about. I do.
But...well, I've just had it pushed in my face that just because a group of people agree with me on one thing, doesn't mean they agree with me. Or even live in the same world as me. The first time I heard Claire Wolfe's beautiful phrase "freedom outlaw" I adopted it as my own because that's what I am. I will be free if I have to break every law in the history of jurisprudence to do it. I will be free if I have to spend the rest of my life in prison to do it. I have no part with people who beg and plead for the privilege of exercising rights they were born with, people who pride themselves on how very law-abiding they are and count that as a measure of their "goodness," people who kiss the hands that rivet on their chains.
"If ye love wealth better than liberty,
the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or your arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
4 comments:
When I point out to those who covet their concealed carry permits that they are liable to commit brand new felonies and paying, literally begging, for the privilege.
I just exercise my Rights as I see fit. Until I am forced to go to war over the issue, I will live in peace.
I certainly qualify for the CCL, I just can't bring myself to beg another man for permission and pay a fee to exercise my Rights.
Well, that's the deal right there.
I've got nothing against somebody who gets the permit to buy a little peace with Leviathan. My position has always been that purists who dump on other people for getting the permit should look in their own wallet, because I don't see a lot of difference between a concealed carry license and a driver's license and most everybody has one of those. I don't, but that was a decision that was made for me by the state and I'd change it if I could.
But I have nothing in common with people who see carrying the permit as a sign of their righteousness, because they've willingly submitted to a background check and now have proven that they're good, legal citizens. Like the DL, it's a compromise, not a point of pride.
And I've got nothing in common with people who have spent so much time complying with every little niggling point of law that they've become little cops themselves, trying to force everybody else through the eye of that needle. I don't have any room to criticize others for doing it, but I won't spend time with people who've so lost sight of their own freedom that they think it's a good thing to do.
Not enough coffee: I'm not expressing myself well. But that's where I am - peoples' attitude toward the permit is a little indicator of where they stand on the larger picture of having freedom in their own lives, or their own hearts.
I open carry and on occasion have explained that I will conceal carry when I don't have to get permission.
The really smug and arrogant don't understand that or why anyone wouldn't beg permission. I surmise, although no one has said so, that they think I can't get one.
I'll get a CCW. I don't LIKE having to get a permit, it pisses me off; but it makes me feel a little better to be in probably the LAST western nation that even allows it at all, and truth be told I'd rather just get the stupid thing than get a felony for geting caught carrying without one. And FWIW it DOES make it a lot easier to buy more handguns after you have it.
"And I've got nothing in common with people who have spent so much time complying with every little niggling point of law that they've become little cops themselves, trying to force everybody else through the eye of that needle."
I think you hit the nail on the head right there. I think the "conservative" mindset I hate more than the 'nobody needs assault weapons' fudds are the assholes who get so carried away with being law abiding that they remind me of a group of kintergardeners saying "oooohhh, you in twubble!"
(hehe.... word verification is 'twat')
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