Reply #28: I thought I'd adequately explained what I have against Goddard

[Euromutt]

But I'm happy to expound.

It's that he seeks to capitalize on his status as a shooting victim to lend authority to his arguments, despite such authority being undeserved because a) gun shows had absolutely nothing to do with the circumstances of his getting shot, and b) because he lends his name to apparently doctored "evidence" (see link in my previous post).

I'd go so far, actually, to say that the condition of being a victim doesn't give anyone additional authority on matters of public policy. Kanan Makiya made an important point in his book Republic of Fear, by pointing out that it is an all too common mistake "to believe that there is something morally redeeming in the quality of victimhood itself," adding later that "victimhood is not a quality; it is a condition."

When a criminal defendant is convicted, we don't let his victims decide his sentence. There's a reason for that.