I smoked pot the first time when I was 21 and TDY to Panama. After I got into sales, my wife and I smoked a lot. When we moved to Florida, and both had government jobs that could require random testing, we stopped smoking. That was over 30 years ago. Sometimes the risk isn't worth the pleasure. If it becomes legal in Florida, I'll smoke again. And, as far as illegal guns go, why? If you have training you don't need a fucking automatic assault rifle with a 40 round clip. I've heard the excuse that it's for target practice. Well, just what are they practicing for? And, if there is a civil war here, and I might want or need one, my neighbor has those rifles, I've heard them firing them. So, why do I need one when I can just take my, legal, .357 and go get those from that untrained asshole.
Civil disobedience does not mean doing anything you like. Calling your actions civil disobedience doesn't mean you are justified in breaking any law you want. To be a true act of civil disobedience you have to feel a law is immoral, in violation of a right defined by law, or you have to disobey a law to change a lawful policy. Smoking marijuana may come under one of those headings, but owning any type of firearm you want does not. Firearm laws are enacted to protect innocent people, not restrict the rights of law abiding citizens. People who feel they have the right to own a .50 caliber machine gun are ignoring the destructive aspects of that weapon in the hands of deranged individuals. As long as we have no way of determining who can be trusted with that type of weapon and who can't, society has every right to protect itself by restricting access. Illegal ownership of a machine gun is not moral, is not a right granted by law that is being denied, and will have no positive effect in changing the right to own one. Further we, as a society, have every right to decide what laws get enacted by the decision of the majority. How else would we do it? Shall we let some minority rule over the majority?
I don't believe in civil disobedience really. I like the idea that you're allowed to do protests and stuff and recognize that it is an appendage of the whole freedom package, but honestly when it comes to participating it really feels like I'm just going to get arrested, maced, or beaten up by opposition.
MLK's civil disobedience came to us through a long tradition from Socrates to Gandhi's satyagraha, which King followed scrupulously. Civility is its cornerstone, and the strategy is aimed at appeal to conscience, and part of it is that the practitioners must present themselves to the authorities for punishment. People who just disobey laws they don't like are simply scofflaws, who should be treated as such.
I consider myself + a 4 foot radius and my home/car a sovereign state. Anytime I am not breaking Texas laws is entirely incidental, in that a few of those laws align with my moral principles, or I respect those specific laws safety intentions, such as some traffic laws. My respect for the occupying powers of Texas and the US is tenuous at best. I understand that this may sound immature, but I'd prefer not to be a thrall. No, guns are tools to kill. I don't really see a difference in having a gun for self defense as any different that having a first aid kit and a flashlight handy. Hopefully you wont need it, but humans are by far the worlds most dangerous animal. Of course I'm afraid of them. Afraid is an imprecise word, but it will do... I understand that many humans are dangerous and that I'm surrounded by them. Scofflaw is a term coined to refer to people who drank despite prohibition, a government overreach that was so egregious that it became the only constitutional amendment to be repealed.
Spoken like a true patriot. You consider yourself to be a sovereign state instead of a citizen of the United States. You believe the state of Texas is an occupying entity, on your sovereign state I presume. You don't believe in the Constitution of the United States, as it is the basis for another occupying entity. You are afraid of human beings. And you see no difference between a gun, a first aid kit, and a flashlight. Yes, it all does sound very immature.
I do as I please as long as it doesn't violate my ethical code, and I reserve the right to protect myself. Take it as you will.
The only problem with that is if and when your ethical code doesn't align with the rest of a rational society's.
I think the problem runs deeper than guns. People who want to kill are going to kill regardless of if they can get a firearm. If we weren't dealing with mass killers, I think we'd be dealing with regular old homicidal maniacs. And I don't know which is worse, as far as society's conscience is concerned. People would still be wondering why. When some teen killed his entire family with an axe. It just seems to me that people focus so much on gun control, but they're not really focusing on the real issue. Which, I think, is that some people just view everyone else as being completely full of shit. That's kind of hard to rectify when your own government massacres hundreds of thousands of people on a whim. I'm sorry, but violence begets violence. You can't go around killing people on the one hand and on the other hand promote this message that everything's okay, everything's all right...family, life, and love. It all rings hollow. It's fake. We aren't the country of peace, love, and understanding. We just aren't.
I take that back. There was this time when the guy was bigger than me, and he had a knife, too. That stopped me.
Dice Interesting that you bring up parenting You take pot presumably because you like it, would you let your 11 year old daughter to smoke it for the same reason, what if she likes to get pass out drunk is that ok with you? What if she likes getting high and pissed and carry a gun – is that ok? I mean the majority of people might think that letting you pre-teen daughter do such things is not responsible parenting, but hey you could just tell them to fuck off.
Panic and Quark Well let me ask you the same question – do you think it responsible parenting for the guardian of an 11 year old to allow that child to smoke pot for fun, get drunk and carry a gun around with them?