Quote of the day—jvalver

Because of our “car culture” – 80 people die a day in auto accidents. Thus the US Taxpayer, which still owns part of GM is responsible for those deaths along with the AAA and license bureaus. Heck- 95 people die each year from lawnmower accidents. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac promoting home ownership should be held accountable because of a “homeowner culture”. Local communities should be held accountable too. They have ordinances about letting grass grow too high, thus a homeowner does it themselves if they can’t afford a landscaper.

jvalver
May 17, 2012
Comment to Racial issues: Face truth about gun violence
[Remember this the next time someone from the Brady Campaign, CSGV, or VPC says something about the NRA or gun manufactures are responsible for a death or injury inflicted by someone using a gun.

It might also be worthwhile to point out they have been creating a culture of hoplophobia and we should “hold them responsible” for the people that were unable to defend themselves because they didn’t have a firearm.—Joe]

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8 thoughts on “Quote of the day—jvalver

  1. There is one problem. Some of the people I’ve talked to about gun rights, when I bring up teh death rate from autos or other accidents, promptly agree that “yes, it IS a problem, and we REALLY SHOULD do something, like ban them, pass a law, etc., etc.” They’d SUPPORT strict limits on car size, speed, and ownership, banning lawnmowers (except the push-powered type), banning swimming pools, potentially toxic home cleaners (which means almost all of them, etc.

    They are on a totally different planet WRT the whole concept of freedom and rights.

  2. Much as I am in favor of taking responsibility for one’s own actions, to some extent the hoplophobes may be in some small degree responsible for some gun injuries/deaths by keeping people from learning about the Four Rules and proper handling of firearms. It is my opinion that this should be a standard part of everyone’s education. They don’t have to own or use them if they don’t want to, but guns do exist and sooner or later most people will probably encounter a firearm in some context. Thus, at a minimum, they should know and be able to practice the Four Rules and how to SAFELY unload and clear a weapon (even while knowing to treat it as though it were loaded). The life they save may be their own, or a loved one’s, or a random child’s. It doesn’t really matter.

    You know how the Eddie Eagle program tells kids to Stop, Don’t touch, Leave the area, Tell an adult? All adults should be prepared to be the adult that is told about that gun, and be prepared to respond and react appropriately.

  3. Publius; Just like teaching kids to put condoms on cucumbers, I think gun safety for kids is up to the parents. The school’s job is to teach the three Rs and history. Even those, ultimately, are up to the parents, though they are free to hire educators to help out. The subject of “what kids should know” and that of “who should be teaching them” are different.

    All that being said; I’ve made the point before that teaching about birth control under the assertion that “they’re going to do it anyway so let’s teach them to do it right” and teaching gun safety are the same in terms of rationale. Turing out graduates that can barely read, barely communicate at all, know virtually nothing about Western History and can’t figure sales tax, is a little more concerning than whether they can practice safe sex at age 12 or handle a gun. I tend to think that if the former challenges are met, the latter two will take care of themselves with help from parents and the NRA.

    I do NOT believe that government should take on the role of my kids’ parents. That’s usurpation, see. The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.

    That opens the over-arching issue of the tangled web that’s been woven over our heads. We can barely address this issue or that issue without running into the problem of untangling the intricate web of government overreach and influence in our daily lives. “Well, if they teach this in public schools, then they should teach that in public schools…”

    No, Young Grasshopper. Coercive education and a free society cannot coexist. One cancels the other. If we had a free society, we wouldn’t be talking about gun restrictions at all, now, would we? So let’s be careful not to entangle ourselves any more than has been done to us already. Let’s play a different game altogether. Let’s play by the rules of liberty, using the language of liberty.

    Just because we’ve had the idea of the inevitability of public schools pounded into our heads does not mean we have to believe it.

    In summary; public education is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Think; “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of education, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” Let’s keep guns and government as far away from each other as possible.

  4. Besides; condoms already come with instructions. So do guns. See? Just teach your kids to read and you’ve won half the battle.

  5. I never said that the .gov should do it; I just said that the hoplophobes shouldn’t keep kids from learning it. There is a difference. I was home schooled, but my parents (influenced by the ’60s-and-later wave of hoplophobia that swept the nation) didn’t like the idea of me touching one & never taught me gun safety except to say that if i was at someone’s house and some kid started playing with his dad’s gun, to leave. When eventually I found one in the house, and ammo, I was too young for common sense (some would argue that I still am) but a bit too old and a bit too curious to be satisfied with that. The results were quite painful, & it was only after that that I learned some basics. That was the day Dad took the family WWI heirloom & sold it off. It wasn’t until many years later that I got back into it again, but by then I knew enough & was mature enough to start off by taking some classes to learn how to do it right.

  6. Come to think of it, college and the first part of grad school (the part that actually resulted in a degree) were also at private schools. There were a couple of years at a community college during high school and a couple of years at a state school for grad school in there as well, but I really don’t consider myself to be a product of “The System”–at least, not in the normal sense.

  7. I can also say that, as a direct result of being home schooled, I was always able to read and do math YEARS ahead of anyone my own age. I was alternately picked on and respected for that, depending on the requirements of the situation when I was with other kids.

  8. I guess, minus the other BS, I could just as easily have said “everyone should learn to read” or something. It’s a basic life skill, and it’s hard to get along in this world without it. Some people manage, but it’s very difficult for them. That doesn’t mean the government has to step in (and look what happens when it does…). If their parents don’t see to it, that’s their responsibility up to a point, but by the time a person is an adult he has to identify and correct, or not, such deficiencies. They’re still deficiencies.

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