The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
Lord Acton
[Gun owners are a minority and are severely harassed via registration, regulation, and media attacks that would never be tolerated were they aimed at other minorities of racial, religious, or sexual orientation composition.–Joe]
Joe, I’m with you on that whole gun ownership thing but your comment here does not make sense.
Pedophiles are in the minority, Mass murderers like Cho are in the minority. Thankfully. Astronauts are in the minority. Racing Car drivers, the list goes on. Are you proposing that they don’t need to conform to a law or that they can use that as an excuse to stop legislation changes?
I understand your confusion but I think you are missing some things that Acton left unsaid in this short quote.
The difference is that “discrimination” based one’s victimization of another is not something to be concerned about. In the case of pedophiles and mass murderers there are clear victims that need to be protected by legislation and punishment for the perpetrators. To the best of my knowledge there are not any threats by the majority to the security of the minorities of astronauts and race car drivers. There are threats to the security of gun owners as a class even though the vast majority of individual gun owners have not and will not create any victims.