But a complementary slippery slope could be posed: if banning the mere possession of something dangerous is anathema to freedom, and we can ban only the use of dangerous objects, then you and I and my neighbor Clyde have the right to possess all kinds of things: virus code, firearms, anthrax, nerve gas, thermonuclear weapons--as long as we don't use them, and of course if Clyde gets testy one night and nukes Sacramento, then he should be tried and punished harshly.
All of which proves, I think, that slippery-slope arguments lead to silliness.
Well, not really. What it shows is that it's possible to generate an absurd situation from a slippery-slope argument by stretching it beyond its reasonable scope.
Existing law requires a destructive-devices permit for the possession of, for example, thermonuclear weapons. I don't see a problem with that. Personally, my preferred resolution on that issue is that NO-ONE should be trusted to possess nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, not only including governments but ESPECIALLY governments. (I have a personal conviction that nuclear weapons are one of the most simultaneously useless and dangerous military devices ever invented; the only situation in which you dare use them is that in which nobody else has them. That window lasted about four years.) Since no-one in their right mind has ever suggested that nuclear, biological and chemical weapons fall within the definition of personal arms and thus within the purview of the Second Amendment, and since there is no conceivable argument which can justify their possession by individuals nor any conceivable utility for such possession, I move we exclude them from discussion as irrelevant to the point.
A handgun? Ditto--but now we're getting into weaponry that's as well suited to offense as to defense.
That's subject to debate and a lot of misconception. Ask anyone with military experience and a grasp of the realities, and they'll tell you that a pistol is not an offensive weapon, it's a defensive one -- and at that, it's not a very good one in a serious fight; in any firefight, a pistol is a last-ditch weapon to buy you time to get your hands on a better one. Even for home defense, a good pump shotgun is a vastly better defensive weapon than a pistol -- it's harder for someone to take it away from you, it has much more firepower, it's easier to hit with, that big .78-caliber hole is AWFULLY intimidating to look down, and Hollywood has helped make the distinctive "sha-CHUNK" of racking the slide a sound instantly identifiable to anyone who hasn't been asleep for the past fifty years. However, a pump shotgun isn't very practical to carry around all day, and certainly isn't very concealable. A pistol is both, which makes it a much better personal defense weapon outside of the home. It still makes a lousy offensive weapon; as an offensive weapon, all but the most specialized pistols are too hard for most people to hit anything with beyond 10 meters or so, and all but the largest-caliber are seriously deficient in firepower. (As witness any number of police shootings in which police have fired off fifty to sixty rounds at a perp, and hit him ten to a dozen times, before he actually goes down.)
A case of dynamite? [...] What in hell does Clyde want with [that]?
Does Clyde own a farm? Does he need to blast stumps? Granted, there's few cases in which an urban dweller needs dynamite. But there's any number of reasons rural dwellers might need the stuff. (A good friend of ours in New Hampshire used several hundred pounds of dynamite in the course of blasting his foundation and basement out of granite bedrock.)
I have no problem with Clyde needing to show a legitimate need in order to purchase a case of dynamite or any other type of explosive, and then having to account for it and how it was used. But I don't see why, if he has a legitimate need for it, he should be prohibited from buying it because you don't need any. Once again, though, blasting materials do not fall into the category of personal arms.
no subject
All of which proves, I think, that slippery-slope arguments lead to silliness.
Well, not really. What it shows is that it's possible to generate an absurd situation from a slippery-slope argument by stretching it beyond its reasonable scope.
Existing law requires a destructive-devices permit for the possession of, for example, thermonuclear weapons. I don't see a problem with that. Personally, my preferred resolution on that issue is that NO-ONE should be trusted to possess nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, not only including governments but ESPECIALLY governments. (I have a personal conviction that nuclear weapons are one of the most simultaneously useless and dangerous military devices ever invented; the only situation in which you dare use them is that in which nobody else has them. That window lasted about four years.)
Since no-one in their right mind has ever suggested that nuclear, biological and chemical weapons fall within the definition of personal arms and thus within the purview of the Second Amendment, and since there is no conceivable argument which can justify their possession by individuals nor any conceivable utility for such possession, I move we exclude them from discussion as irrelevant to the point.
A handgun? Ditto--but now we're getting into weaponry that's as well suited to offense as to defense.
That's subject to debate and a lot of misconception. Ask anyone with military experience and a grasp of the realities, and they'll tell you that a pistol is not an offensive weapon, it's a defensive one -- and at that, it's not a very good one in a serious fight; in any firefight, a pistol is a last-ditch weapon to buy you time to get your hands on a better one. Even for home defense, a good pump shotgun is a vastly better defensive weapon than a pistol -- it's harder for someone to take it away from you, it has much more firepower, it's easier to hit with, that big .78-caliber hole is AWFULLY intimidating to look down, and Hollywood has helped make the distinctive "sha-CHUNK" of racking the slide a sound instantly identifiable to anyone who hasn't been asleep for the past fifty years.
However, a pump shotgun isn't very practical to carry around all day, and certainly isn't very concealable. A pistol is both, which makes it a much better personal defense weapon outside of the home. It still makes a lousy offensive weapon; as an offensive weapon, all but the most specialized pistols are too hard for most people to hit anything with beyond 10 meters or so, and all but the largest-caliber are seriously deficient in firepower. (As witness any number of police shootings in which police have fired off fifty to sixty rounds at a perp, and hit him ten to a dozen times, before he actually goes down.)
A case of dynamite? [...] What in hell does Clyde want with [that]?
Does Clyde own a farm? Does he need to blast stumps? Granted, there's few cases in which an urban dweller needs dynamite. But there's any number of reasons rural dwellers might need the stuff. (A good friend of ours in New Hampshire used several hundred pounds of dynamite in the course of blasting his foundation and basement out of granite bedrock.)
I have no problem with Clyde needing to show a legitimate need in order to purchase a case of dynamite or any other type of explosive, and then having to account for it and how it was used. But I don't see why, if he has a legitimate need for it, he should be prohibited from buying it because you don't need any. Once again, though, blasting materials do not fall into the category of personal arms.