There are a lot of arguments presented by some folks that only sound good from within a given political bubble. They generally exist within one particular side of our current political divide, primarily because one side has such control of the media, that they get feedback suggesting these arguments are sound when they’re anything but.
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It’s not that the other side can’t have them–there are plenty, to be sure–but I tend to see them more on the left.
A prime example is this old chestnut that keeps being trotted out, the idea that guns have more rights than women.
The other day, I saw an Instagram post that stuck with me. It read, “I dream women will one day have the same rights as guns.” Gun control is another issue that I have felt strongly about, long before I was able to vote. The Sandy Hook shooting shook me as a third grader in a neighboring town, and still, no substantial change has occurred in the wake of this horrific event. Over a decade later, mass shootings plague the country, and we have yet to establish common-sense gun reform.
There is an undeniable hypocrisy in seeing “pro-life” Republican politicians completely change their tune when it comes to gun control, even donning AR-15 pins in Congress. It is truly disheartening to see their smug lack of care for the hundreds who die in mass shootings every year. With many Republicans of the same mindset holding the majority in the Senate and likely the House, effective gun control will continue to remain dead on arrival.
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First, what the author misses is that the term “pro-life” isn’t the least bit hypocritical when you understand that guns save lives.
They save many times more lives each year than the number of lives taken with one. They also stop rape, robbery, aggravated assaults, and other violent crimes. It’s only hypocritical if you’re pathologically unable to even listen to the other side’s arguments on a given topic.
But let’s talk about the whole “women will have the same rights as guns” nonsense.
First, guns don’t actually have rights. People have rights. The term “gun rights” is just a shorthand phrase for “the right to keep and bear arms.”
Because that right extends to all Americans who haven’t lost their rights after due process of law–namely felons and those with severe mental illnesses or disabilities–then by extension, women have all of those rights.
They can’t have fewer rights than guns because they have their gun rights. At the absolute minimum, they have the exact same rights, such as they are.
But let’s look at how guns are handled, but applying them to women for a bit of fun.
- Under New York state law, women are prohibited from private property unless the property owner expressly permits them.
- In California, the only women allowed are those on a particular list of allowable women. Women deemed as too dangerous are pretty much banned and those that exist have to be registered with the state. Oh, and that list? There really aren’t any new women being added.
- A number of states restrict how large a woman can be.
- Several states require a permit for there to be a woman in the home at all
- Other states require women to be locked up when not in use
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Start to see how stupid all of that is?
Of course, the stupidity will continue because the people who make these arguments are functional morons who have never bothered to sit down and talk to literally anyone who disagreed with them unless they planned to turn it into a lecture about how much that other person sucks.
