Friday, February 21, 2003

Would Jesus Own a Gun?. ...if you take away ownership of private firearms, you risk creating a police state. One Canadian lady I met on vacation in the Dominican Republic proudly informed me that "in Canada, only the police have guns." But what if the police are evil? It would be all too easy to create a police state in this situation. [Joshua Claybourn's Domain] A repost of my comment to this article: I've never understood the argument that "citizens having guns prevents the development of a police state". In the United States, for example, what good would a citizen militia do against a hypothetical tyrant armed with smart bombs and nuclear weapons? Perhaps the "right to keep and bear arms" was effective in the early days of the Republic, but as the weapons of modern militaries have grown more destructive, its effectiveness in preventing tyranny has evaporated entirely. If you look at the history of the 20th century, governments fell not because of an armed (or unarmed) citizenry, but because they had lost legitimacy in the eyes of their people. In Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War, in South Africa at the end of apartheid, and even in India earlier in the century, revolution was performed largely without a shot being fired by the people who were oppressed. But in countless examples, we have seen civil society destroyed by civil wars wrought by citizen militias. Central America. Africa. Afghanistan. There may be good reasons to allow people to have guns (although I can't think of any), but from a historical perspective, protection against tyranny certainly is not one of them. By the way, the answer is no. Jesus would not have owned a gun. He wasn't on earth to lead a violent revolution, he was on earth to die for all humanity.   6:35:39 PM

'Human Shields' Begin Deploying in Iraq "We will try everything to get peace instead of war and to protect civil societies," said Ingrid Ternert, a Swedish member of the group. [AP World News] I wonder what these "human shields" have to say about the fact that they would likely be executed if they were Iraqis exercising their right to free speech? What do they think about the fact that Mr. Hussein used human shields against their will in 1991? And would they be as willing to give up their lives in order to topple the dictatorship in Iraq as they seem to be in order to stop a war?   6:18:18 PM

Iraq Given March 1 Missile Deadline Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix ordered Iraq on Friday to destroy dozens of its missiles with ranges that violate U.N. limits, and gave Baghdad a March 1 deadline to begin the demolition. [AP World News] Iraq's last last last last last last last chance (we mean it!). The question on my mind is whether or not Iraq's compliance (or lack thereof) with this deadline will change the minds of anyone in either the pro- or anti-war camps? Will the French, upon Iraq's failure to comply, state that "more dialogue is needed?" Will the US, upon Iraq's timely compliance, say "we're still tired of waiting for these other issues to resolve themselves, so let's go to war?" In the end, does the truth really matter in this debate, or is it all about politics and ideology? I don't have a lot of confidence in the ideologues on both sides being able to hear the truth.   6:09:47 PM