A 1st Amendment defense of gun rights

I recently had an art major friend of mine claim that a defendable definition of art was “anything not required for immediate survival”. This means that everything from the image of your stubble covered face in the mirror as you got up in the morning to the dirty socks you threw in the hamper that night and nearly everything you saw, did, smelled, touched, or heard in between qualifies as art.

I don’t have to squint very hard to see that definition being valid.

Our society currently has a very broad definition of 1st Amendment protection of art. This has extended to government grants for such controversial works of art as Piss Christ.

So why can’t a claim be made for First Amendment protection for 100 round drum magazines as works of art? It certain meets my primary definition of art which is, “Something aesthetically pleasing but without significant functionality.”

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3 thoughts on “A 1st Amendment defense of gun rights

  1. Plus the 100 drum magazine, so prone to jams, has the advantage, because of that lack of significant functionality, of not being a craft object, as the weapon itself might.

  2. Interesting, and worth thinking about some. I have tended to think that art is something that happens in the mind, and is any process or act that cannot be described in a set of definite steps. Or if you prefer, anything that a computer can’t be programmed to do. Which means engineering is a type of art, and all manufactured goods are works of art – somebody had to design the product and the process by which to manufacture it.

  3. So… would that mean if you glue a small “velvet Elvis” to the front of a hundred-round drum mag, they couldn’t take it away?

    I always sort of thought of art as something that alters (or at least has to do with) form in a pleasing way, but without altering function in a significant way. If it DID alter function, then it’s more a design element than art. Well, that, and stuff the spousal unit likes for decorative purpose, and I think is a dust collector.

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