I just finished reading the DC response in the Heller case. The following sentence jumped out at me:
The Council concluded that concealable and lethal handguns are responsible for a disproportionately high number of violent crimes, accidents, and suicides, particularly in an exclusively urban jurisdiction.
Apparently “The Council” believes inanimate objects have volition and commit violent crimes, accidents, and suicides. Why suicides of handguns are a problem for them when “The Council” already bans them seems particularly odd but one cannot expect these type of people to be rational.
But what is even more odd to me is the mindset that in some jurisdictions the public servants apparently believe their masters to be morally and/or intellectually deficient. I’ve run into this before with people from the Chicago area. They will say something like, “Its okay for people in the country to have guns but the people in the inner cities just can’t be allowed to have guns–they will use them to commit crimes.” Realize what these people are saying. They are admitting to being bigots and frequently they are racist bigots. They don’t trust the inner city minorities to own firearms. In their view the inner city residents are inherently immoral and if allowed the tools to commit violent crimes they will do so.
“…if allowed the tools to commit violent crimes they will do so.”
And that’s assuming that when the tools are illegal, the people won’t have them. We know that to be a false assumption right from the get go.
But it’s a waste of time trying to understand the minds of the insane– trying to apply reason to the assertions of the unreasoned.
One thing you may be missing (though I know you better) is that these servants do not see themselves as servants at all. They see themselves as royalty– as caretakers or even babysitters. They’re horribly confused, but as inmates having been given the keys to the asylum, who can blame them for their confusion? By what currently practiced method of teaching, or under what practicing authority, can they be expected to learn their proper role?