Gun control vs. surveillance

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Oct 17 11:55:35 PDT 2002


Carl:
> [I've been surprised that the Washington, DC-area sniper
> hasn't prompted
> another discussion of gun control on this list. Or maybe,
> the tedious
> predictability of how that discussion would play out has
> discouraged people
> from raising this issue yet again. But I think there is
> something new in
> the equation now: If gun control isn't significantly
> strengthened, I think
> it's a certainty there will be vastly increased use of constant TV
> surveillance of roads and all other public areas. Isn't stricter gun
> control preferable to that?]

Guns and not inherently a Right-wing issue - self-defence against jackbooted thugs has plenty of Left appeal. The main bone contention is not about gun control (I think every rational person agrees that a system allowing tracking every weapon to its rightful owner is a good thing) - but about life styles. Gun has become a symbol of of the white-rural-or-suburban-male-I-wanna-do-what-I-want-damn-it life style. It is because of its cultural connotation rather than the utlity of the thing itself that guns have been embraced by rednecks and rightwing trolls and abhorred by the progressive types.

As to the DC sniper - the Left does not want to discuss this issue, because anything that can been said about this specimen would not be nice and politically correct (IMHO people like him should be publicly executed, which means, yes, full support for death penalty for violent males, thank you) - and that would mean addressing tough issues in a non-doctrinnaire way, which many Leftist would rather avoid.

Wojtek



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list