Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Senate Panel Votes for Ban on Assault Weapons [View all]thucythucy
(8,050 posts)would seem to be its ease of use:
"From the morning that ArmaLite opened its doors in 1954 to the present, most of the innovation that has gone into the AR-15 has been aimed at making the gun as accurate and pleasurable to shoot as possible. The result is a gun that really is an order of magnitude easier to use effectively than many of the traditional wood-stocked rifles that black-rifle-hating hunters grew up with."
The above is quoted from someone else on this thread, seeming to argue the pro-Bushmaster position. So it seems a major part of the weapon's appeal is its ease of use. Lanza, as dysfunctional as he was, had evidently no difficulty using it to deadly effect on a massive scale. And yes, I continue to see a problem with that.
You have a problem with "apologists for pedophilia." Good for you. So do I.
"Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac, and many others prove that great artists are not necessarily great, or even good, people."
See my comments above about Burroughs and Mailer.
Ginsberg argued that NAMBLA had a right to state its position, as perverse as it was. He said that people who advocated the legalization of marijuana shouldn't be arrested for doing so, that arguing for legalizing marijuana wasn't the same thing as actually using it. That was the analogy he used. He was a free speech absolutist. Personally, I think the analogy is flawed, for a host of reasons, but that's grist for a whole other OP.
But it's interesting. Ginsberg repels you for advocating that NAMBLA had a free speech right to assert its position. Burroughs actually shot and killed another human being, blowing her brains out during a game of William Tell, and yet here he is on this thread, being quoted for his pithy comments on gun control. I'm assuming that repels you as well.
As for the rest of it, I'm sure we'll be debating all this for years to come.