I know you're a good small-L small-D liberal democrat, which is why I think this exchange is perfectly illustrative of what I describe here. Betraying your own principles over a cultural aversion bsky.app/profile/john...
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It's well within your right to have no interest in owning a gun. But if it's possible to dramatically reduce gun deaths *without* a draconian ban, surely you should support that? I earnestly believe that it is. Non-Anglo gun laws across the globe suggest that it is.
aug 29, 2025, 6:07 pm • 11 0 • view
Nah
aug 29, 2025, 6:10 pm • 5 0 • view
Liberalism doesn't actually require a minimal state, in the sense you're describing (no more intrusion on personal liberty than necessary to achieve particular compelling ends). The democratic community is, within certain limits, entitled to regulate the conditions of social life how it sees fit!
aug 29, 2025, 6:11 pm • 10 1 • view
Is firearm ownership within what ought to be the "individual rights" exception to this principle? Fantastically no, not even close! Firearms exist to cause death and destruction. They are eminently regulable, if literally anything is. ALSO!
aug 29, 2025, 6:12 pm • 9 0 • view
A significant reduction in firearm deaths is good. An EVEN BIGGER reduction in firearm deaths is better! One (1) death that we could stop by writing laws is one death too many. No obligation to balance "people enjoy their gun hobbies" against that.
aug 29, 2025, 6:13 pm • 6 0 • view
Yeah, this is pure culture war nonsense. Gotta make the hicks miserable, no matter what carve-outs you have to make to your supposedly universal principles. "Even one death is too many, no need to balance anyone else's hobbies or interests." This is legitimately insane if applied universally.
aug 29, 2025, 6:16 pm • 7 0 • view
I mean, I'm not necessarily saying that's what the law SHOULD be. Obviously in many cases *coughdrivingcough* we do in fact trade off lives for e.g. convenience. I'm just saying that liberal principles do not OBLIGE us to weigh hobbies and interests against actual-factual lives
aug 29, 2025, 6:18 pm • 11 1 • view
A law that banned automobiles because of the deaths they cause would not be illiberal
aug 29, 2025, 6:18 pm • 9 1 • view
"A law that banned automobiles... would not be illiberal." 👍👌
aug 29, 2025, 6:19 pm • 6 0 • view
Robert Black, welcome to the war on cars.
aug 29, 2025, 6:20 pm • 3 0 • view
.....yeah?
aug 29, 2025, 6:20 pm • 8 0 • view
Firearms are the most effective means of self defense, which is the most fundamental right of all sentient beings. As such, they are among the least regulatable so long as they are effective for that purpose.
sep 2, 2025, 12:35 am • 0 0 • view
Absolutely no it is not.
sep 2, 2025, 12:33 am • 0 0 • view
I agree. would you say liberalism demands that the state be limited I.e restrained constitutionally legally procedurally etc so that it respects individual rights up to a point?
aug 29, 2025, 9:15 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm not a lawyer, which is why I think my experience here will be valuable. Till this day, the easiest place I've ever purchased a gun is Tokyo. New Delhi has the highest number of shootings in Asia.
aug 29, 2025, 7:35 pm • 0 0 • view
Japan has extremely strict gun laws
aug 29, 2025, 8:28 pm • 0 0 • view
That's the point I'm making. "Gun laws" do not mean anything to rich people in most parts of the world. I'm speaking as an immigrant. To cease gun deaths, we must invest in reducing poverty, provide alternatives to self-defense, and invest in investigative capabilities.
aug 29, 2025, 9:16 pm • 0 0 • view
What's the annual death rate from guns in Japan, do you happen to know?
aug 29, 2025, 9:20 pm • 2 0 • view
I know it's famously recorded as single digit. I'm not trying to win a debate here. I'm sure there's a hundred ways I'm wrong about some detail or the other. My point is, the 2nd amendment isn't about guns. It's about the 'right to defend' being equally distributed. It's not like that everywhere
aug 29, 2025, 9:37 pm • 0 0 • view
We already do these things to a great degree, we should do them more.
aug 29, 2025, 9:16 pm • 0 0 • view
The Second Amendment is radical not in that it allows keeping of firearms, but that it allows both the rich and poor to own the right to defend themselves.
aug 29, 2025, 7:35 pm • 0 0 • view
The facts of guns and gun ownership suggest that it is. But nobody left of center is remotely interested in even learning about this possibility, because even opening up the wikipedia page on the AR-15 makes them feel like they're betraying their families and principles.
aug 29, 2025, 6:08 pm • 3 0 • view