Bret Weinstein
Courtesy Bret Weinstein, YouTube
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As a young man I regarded the second amendment as the founders’ biggest blunder. As we head into 2022, my position has flipped — I now believe history may well come to regard it as the most far-sighted thing the founders did, not in spite of its vagueness, but because of it. It’s like a mysterious passage from a sacred text that forces living people to interpret it in a modern context. The founders believed the people needed to be able to defend their free state — with deadly force — whether that refers to a geographical state, or a state of being, or both.

It’s not that I don’t see the terrible carnage which comes from ubiquitous guns. I do see it, and I detest it just like every other decent American. I know that a single deranged or careless person can rob us of anyone, at any time. No American is exempt. Not our families, nor our leaders. It is a terrifying realisation. With modern weapons an individual can kill dozens. It has happened many times, and it will happen again.

I find none of this remotely acceptable as a human, or an American. Remember, I said at the beginning that I believe that the liberals are basically right about the staggering cost of ubiquitous guns. Further, I don’t believe the net effect of ubiquitous guns during an average year, or decade, or century is a reduction in harm. It’s a complex picture, but many Western nations have managed crime as well or better than the US without the population being armed. On long timescales, however, I suspect this trend reverses. A nation’s descent into tyranny can kill millions, and it can drag continents, or the world as a whole, into war.

The terrifying carnage that derives from the right to bear arms must, in the end, be compared to the cost of not having that right, not only for the individual, but for the republic and its neighbours at a minimum. If you imagine that tyranny cannot happen in America due to some safeguard built into our system, or by virtue of some immunity residing in the population itself, then perhaps there is nothing left to discuss.

For my part, I don’t believe it. In fact, I believe I know better, both as a scholar and as someone who was falsely accused of racism and hunted in my own neighbourhood — with the police withdrawn in a foolish attempt to appease the mob. And I suspect that if we put the question to a vote, the fraction of the citizenry who believes tyranny could happen here is rising rapidly, even if we don’t necessarily agree on its most likely source.

— Bret Weinstein in The liberal case for gun ownership

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136 COMMENTS

  1. Yes other countries have done well without gun ownership…..if you consider being a citizen with NO rights unless granted by the state, a desirable way to live. Hence the second ammendment!! Yes, the founders knew exactly why we needed it, remember where they came from. What a shame none of this is taught in “school” anymore!

    • It’s funny how whenever a liberal compares violence in America to that of other countries they can see clearly across 3000 miles of ocean yet can’t see a thing just across the Rio Grande in that gun free paradise. Truth is among white Americans violent crime is right on par with white western Europe, but that’s a can of worms they aren’t about to open.

      • ya also need to consider the history of Europe.

        Its was all composed of feudal states class society – kings, queens, lords, barons, etc… those classes vs the lower class peasants/serfs who served the feudal state. The state back then kept the peasants/serfs disarmed for a reason, to prevent armed uprisings against tyranny of the upper class feudal state. The feudal state kept standing armies they used to keep the peasants/serfs in line, there was always a threat of the “kings men” enforcing the “kings law” of putting down any rebellion’ish thing.

        We forward into modern day and take a close look at a people-disarmed Europe, and we still see the people being educated to serve the state and elements of the feudal system still in place, and the threat of the states standing armies still there ready to be used against the people to put down any rebellion’ish thing. And still with great class divisions even with royalty in some cases, and elements of the standing army used in elements of enforcing the states law. Its a diluted form of feudal state tryany that is still ingrained in the “governments” and disguised on the world stage as “freedom” for them. The difference in Europe for this “freedom” is its mostly a fake “freedom”, its the state that grants or allows most of those “freedoms” and the state can take them away when ever they wish just like the feudal states did way back and they are mostly not all an inherent natural right part of existence like they are in the U.S. under our constitution.

        The people in Europe are not disarmed to reduce crime. They are disarmed because the “feudal state” institutionalization ingrained in their governments is afraid the people would use arms to rise up against the institutional tyranny of their governments, which is why they keep elements of their standing armies trained and ready to suppress rebellion in their borders. The veiled threat of the standing armies of Europe keeps the people of Europe in line. And those that rebel are treated to a taste of that standing army, for a more obvious example, Ireland and the U.K. which is still a monarchy like it was in the feudal state condition of old.

        The feudal state condition is ingrained fully once again today in Europe. They aren’t really free, the feudal state institutionalization has trained generation after generation to get used to it and “serve the state” in exchange for their “governments” giving them the “rights” the government wants them to have, and they keep them disarmed to avoid armed rebellion and use the veiled threat of a standing army employment to put down any uprising against the feudal state institutionalization.

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  2. We could easily have less violent crime. The powers that be don’t want to address those problems because there’s no incentive for them to do so. As a matter of fact, their policies are making the problems worse. They don’t feel the moral obligation to help anyone but themselves. When someone calls them out, all they do is scream racism and guns. Their propaganda apparatus takes it from there to drill the message into the sheep.

  3. He who would trade essential liberties for some imagined security is deserving of neither. The whining twat who authored the article certainly falls into that category. He admits that he was brought up to believe our founding fathers were fools. Obviously, he and all his caretakers were fools.

    The right to bear arms is what separates free men from slaves.

    • Now that you’ve got that off your chest, go back and actually READ the article. If you still don’t understand it, have someone read the last two paragraphs aloud to you.

      News flash: He was AGREEING with you.

      • He’s not really there yet. He’s weighing cost and benefits. He’s just not there yet. Every man, woman, and juvenile in the world has the right to defend himself, no matter the cost.

  4. Weinstein, like many people still calling themselves liberal Democrats are actually red pilled now; they’re just suffering with decades old self-identities they can’t shake because like many, they are more trapped in group identity than free thought and individualism…luckily some are starting to break free of the theological shackles of indoctrination.

    • “…they are more trapped in group identity than free thought and individualism…”

      Which is different from the Right, how exactly?

      • Conservatives, in general, are so because they’ve thought about the options. I believe it was Churchill who said if you’re 20 and not a liberal, you have no heart, but if you’re 40 and not a conservative, you have no brain.
        That denotes people, as adults, seeing what both options result in, and having a belief system based on that.

        • “…seeing what both options…”

          There’s that false dichotomy again.

          For all their blather Conservatives rarely actually believe in freedom. They believe in a police state just like the Left does. It’s just a question of what behaviors they’d like to police.

        • At 20 I was a ‘well right of center’ conservative, so I guess I never had a heart.
          As I’ve aged I’ve moved more rightward and certainly more solidified in that position. Any kind of honest and logical analysis of Leftist ideas and policies show they don’t lead anywhere good (see California)

          However, I firmly believe the political spectrum is not a left-right line but a circle, with neutral being at 12 o’clock and utter tyranny being at 6 o’clock. Too far in either direction leads to the same place.

        • “…not a left-right line but a circle…”

          This is an apt analysis.

        • ‘For all their blather Conservatives rarely actually believe in freedom.’

          Everyone actually believes in freedom. For themselves. Others not so much. Hypocrisy is an innate characteristic in man. More so in liberals though.

        • “Everyone actually believes in freedom. For themselves. Others not so much. Hypocrisy is an innate characteristic in man.”

          The cynic in me would like to believe that it is this simple.

          The jaded part of me does not allow such a belief.

        • to:VicRattlehead, Nero “…diction, not grammar…” Wolfe
          not a left-right line but a circle, with neutral being at 12 o’clock and utter tyranny being at 6 o’clock.
          This concept was taught to me as a Sophomore in High School in the late 60s’.

      • It’s different because the tenets of right wing politics include respecting the country, the constitution, and traditional morality. The modern left is the opposite of that.

        To be fair, the GOP doesn’t govern how their base wants them to govern. In typical political fashion, they say one thing and do another. People are finally waking up to that. We don’t have to live like this. It’s time to focus on the primaries in red districts.

        • You lost me at “respecting… the constitution”.

          Most people don’t know what’s in it, Conservatives included, and further, they don’t care. They’re easily manipulated by bumper-sticker sloganeering and emotional manipulation which they will then tell you have no effect on them.

          In the vast majority of cases the lie they’re telling themselves in that regard can be exposed in fewer than five questions.

          Further examination will usually reveal someone brainwashed into playing an unwinnable team sport mostly under a set of rules designed to ensure they can never win, and more disturbingly, that they enjoy this.

        • I don’t disagree with what you’re saying. The question posed was how is the right different. They’re different because their values are different. Even if they don’t know or understand the Constitution, and even if they are followers, they know they’re supposed to respect it (instead of supposed to hate it) which may lead them to educating themselves about it. This alone makes right wing followers preferable to left wing followers.

        • Neither wing a predatory bird is preferable IMHO, and that’s how I view both.

          From a political science perspective it can be fun to argue about linear vs circular vs triangular representations of the political spectrum. Ultimately though, they’re all bullshit.

          It’s a line, but it’s not about the ends or the middle. The line is a fence, effectively.

          On one side there’s the people who support freedom with all its dangers and offensive truths and then, on the other side, there are the people who prefer some form of tyrant under the guise of “safety” and the unobjectionable little *noble* lies that tyrant spews.

          And, as I’ve said about a zillion times, most of the people on the tyranny side don’t realize that they’re there. It’s a prison built in their own head for them by others.

          But their innocence in this regard doesn’t change the facts. Facts like that they blather about respect without practicing it. How could they? How can one respect lofty things like principles when one knows nothing of them? They don’t respect anything in that regard. They parrot platitudes without thinking like kids reciting the Lord’s Prayer without a second thought as to the meaning.

          It’s a cult that they don’t even realize they’re in. Which is funny in some regards because they see it in others who just so happen to be more similar than different because they’re victims too.

          It’s a fascinating manipulation, really. Getting two groups to fight about which tyranny they prefer while the tyrants laugh and take more power. Oh, you won a 2A case? Nice, what were the other heads of the hydra doing while you were preoccupied? Lots of things. Sometimes they even make the news. None to your benefit, but you weren’t meant to benefit anyway.

        • I noticed a distinct political difference between those who cheered on authoritarianism and those who fought it during the Covid madness. That doesn’t mean the Republican party is great. They sold out the country to corporate interest decades ago. In my opinion, it will be much easier to reform the party than start a new one. That happens with the primary elections. People that aren’t happy with Democrats will just check the R box in the general election.

      • The three L’s believe that Easter worshipers should stay home while Walmart and its millions of daily customers go about their normal shopping.

        That is what a Left winger like you Strych 9 believes. As well as Bret Weinstein. The Left in the end will always run to the state and its various state created industrial complexes. While the Right will run to god, community, family.

        • If you’re going to slander me can you at least properly spell my name?

          Also, your Savior was an openly admitted anarcho-communist and so were all Christians in the early Roman Empire. They were also big fans of funny mushrooms.

          Chew on dem facts for awhile. While you’re at it, go fuck yourself.

        • “That is what a Left winger like you Strych 9 believes.”

          Chris, Strych9 is no Leftist Scum.

          Strych, please remember the vast majority out there are no where near as smart as you are.

          Cut ’em some slack in that department, please…

        • It has nothing to do with intelligence or education.

          It has to do with the fact that Chris T in Kentucky has repeatedly slandered me, including but not limited to, flat-out making up shit that I’ve supposedly said.

          He didn’t used to be like that. It started a bit over a year ago. I’ve inquired numerous times as to if he needs some sort of help since it’s out of character for him.

          But from my point of view his previous self is immaterial at this point because he’s managed to exhaust my patience.

          Unless we’re talking older distros of Linux, fuck slack. Chris has had plenty from me for over a year.

        • Wow, strych9, way to totally misunderstand the teachings of Jesus. Yes, he was a communitarian, but no rational reading of his teachings can conclude he was a ‘communist’. Nice try, though.

        • “Yes, he was a communitarian, but no rational reading of his teachings can conclude he was a ‘communist’. Nice try, though.”

          Funny how all the Christians immediately after his time would have laughed in your face if you said this. They were all communists, though they wouldn’t have understood that particular word.

          This is literally the root cause of them being fed to lions. They were a bunch of anarcho-commies actively trying to take down the Empire for the purpose of bringing about the End Times. They wrote on the topic extensively. They testified to this fact is open court so many times you could spent a life-time just reading the court proceedings where judges actively try to save them from execution yet the Christians insist on being put to death.

          Jesus basically tells you this in Matthew 22:15-22. That’s a coded call for a tax revolt bro. That’s what that is. Jesus is speaking in the only tradition he can at the time, which is the Jewish one of 2000 years ago based in what we now call the “Old Testament”, maybe you’ve heard of it?

          Caesar is nothing but ashes and dust, he can own nothing. Everything in the universe belongs to God because go read Genesis. You don’t even need a long attention span, it’s in Chapter 2.

          What, you’ve never been to a funeral and pondered what’s traditionally said? No, you didn’t did you? It’s just an incantation, isn’t it?

          This is exactly why the passage notes that Jesus is aware of the “malice” of the Pharisees. They’re trying to get him to openly make anti-government statements and they marvel at his ability to avoid their trap and still make an antigovernment statement with a masterful rhetorical flourish.

          You people don’t even understand the religion you claim to believe in. Is Credo quia absurdum your personal watchword or are you just lazy?

        • Strych9,

          So, you compound your ahistorical exegesis with word salad biblical “interpretation” of what Jesus ‘actually meant’. I am impressed . . . at your brazen idiocy. dacian the dimwit would be proud. Remeber the whole, “render unto Caesar . . .” and “my kingdom is not of this world . . . ” thing, Strych?? And, even if your strained ‘interpretation’ is even REMOTELY correct, how is a tax revolt in the slightest “communist”??? Communists LOVE taxes . . . as long as they get to choose who’s taxed.

          Sorry, you’d flunk a Theology course with that nonsense, not that you’ve ever taken one.

  5. Mr. Weinstein is speaking (weakly) against established Progressive canon…the shame of it all.

    However…

    I want one of his “ubiquitous” guns…that’s a model I do not (as yet) own.

  6. You could see the horror on his face when he interviewed Betty Pezzimenti.

    Bret’s not just thinking about gun ownership in some abstract sense. He’s rapidly moving towards the “Holy shit, we need to go full 1776 before it’s too late” position.

    • And good on him for that.

      I found the prose convincing and compelling. And if it points a few in the right direction, all the better.

      If the Leftist Scum are seriously concerned about a right-wing takeover (as a number of them have recently) they’re gonna need the tools and the training to at least attempt to do it right…

    • And yet her reveals at the end that he still isn’t sure which side of the political spectrum the tyranny will arise from. Which is why he is still a Liberal.

      After all his consideration he STILL thinks it is Conservatives who will be the tyrants and must be fought against.

      He should look around himself at antifa and BLM and the other sorts who identify as liberals and wonder how effective these anarchists and identity challenged individuals would be as an armed revolutionary force.

      Conservatives are the enemy ONLY if you think the Constitution is a tyrannical form of government.

      • 75% of people who refer to themselves as “Conservatives” don’t know dick about the Constitution and don’t care to ever learn. They have ZERO problem with tyranny so long as it’s one that they like.

        They’ve quite happily openly supported shredding Amendments 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 for “safety” of their preferred type. In doing so they have both emboldened and assisted the Left in maneuvering the country to the precipice of a full-blown police state.

        • Brilliant observation, as usual. What do you propose as the solution? Are we to abandon the 25% of conservatives that do understand the Constitution because of the 75% that are ignorant?

        • I think that’s a question that comes down to the decidedly unsatisfying answer of “It depends on circumstances”.

          The unhappy reality is, IMHO, three fold at this point.

          1) The GOP is useless and has been for a long time but a two party system doesn’t really give you a lot of options.

          2) The hour is later than many believe and there is much to do. Personally, I’m not long (in the investing sense) on there being a political solution to around a dozen MAJOR problems we face right now, most of which the vast majority of people are entirely unaware of the potential for, nevermind the existence of. [Unless you want to go with the Von Clausewitz that violence-is-a-natural-extension-of-politics-theory, which I’m not opposed to but I think that’s getting a bit off in the weeds to the point of being a useless distinction at this point in time.]

          Simply, put I don’t think the 2022 election can change anything because I don’t think the current bleeding we need to to stauch comes from a wound in the Legislative Branch. Also, see #1.

          3) These are not problems with loci in the United States only. They’re an overall issue throughout the Western world and beyond.

          I’ve posed the question before: How does international shipping affect your 2A rights?

          That’s not something I’m throwing out as a trick question or some sort of silly sophistry. A huge number of things both domestically and internationally are interconnected in ways that most people do not even begin to grasp. Numerous areas can set off a cascade that ends very poorly for civil rights, not just in the US but worldwide.

          A discussion of human rights, self defense and the 2A included, must necessarily consider the complex system in which those rights exist and upon which those rights depend. Starving people don’t give a fuck about your free speech or their own. People desperate for medicine give no shits about search and seizure rules etc etc.

          And the Rittenhouse trial, upon examination, reveals that even without all these overhangs many of our cherished rights are in far more danger than one might suspect. That case is a steaming pile of problems from a civil libertarians perspective and, mostly, people are ignorant of those “small” issues.
          ===
          So, IMHO, it comes down to how things shake out. I think that some percentage of the 75% will wake up. Rock bottom (or the perception thereof) tends to do that to a person. I think you can kind of see some of that in the debates over CRT and how some school boards have abused their relationship with the police. People are generally more wary of state power than they were 20 months ago.

          But yes, at a certain point the ram has touched the wall and those still straggling will have to simply be cut loose. Maybe they come back to the fold, maybe not. It’s not really their fault IMHO, but a dog doesn’t get rabies by choice.

          Perhaps Hunter S. Thompson said it best in what is possibly his best quote: “A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”

        • An eloquent summary of cultural entropy.

          Civilization, not just Western, has become a massive cruise ship at flank speed with a broken rudder. Everyone is partying until the ship smashes into something.

        • Really??? Please elucidate for me those points on which you believe conservatives would ignore the Bill of Rights to institute “tyranny”. I personally know of no such people (and I know a LOT of conservatives), but I’d be interested in an ‘on the ground’ report on this group of would-be tyrannists you find under your bed.

        • “Please elucidate for me those points on which you believe conservatives would ignore the Bill of Rights to institute “tyranny”.”

          It’s in mainstream “Conservative” thought. If you can’t see that you’re brainwashed. It’s that simple. Stop and examine mainstream Conservatism. If you still can’t find it… damn, son, they gotcha good.

          I’m sorry, I don’t have the patience to spoon feed some of you people this shit any more. Wake the fuck up to how you’ve been manipulated. It starts with realizing you have been.

          Meerloo, Huxley and Orwell warned you about this. The latter two decided to attempt this via works of fiction about a dystopian future but they were basing it on real psychological manipulation tactics that existed before they wrote those books.

          By the 1960’s Huxley was terrified by the advances made in ~30 years which he assumed would take a full century.

          Here we are 60 years later and most people are still blind to what was possible then. It’s been vastly improved. Anyone who says they’re not a victim of it says that very specifically because they are a victim of it.

          Literally every piece of media has been designed from the ground up to lull you into a suggestive state, sometimes known as a “hypnotic” state. That’s been true for nearly a century at this point. The entire society is built around this concept. It’s what sells everything from widgets to political positions to religion and it’s designed from the ground up to kill your critical thinking capabilities and get you to accept a manufactured position.

          You just see it with the Left easily because their position is such a contrast to yours.

        • “Civilization, not just Western, has become a massive cruise ship at flank speed with a broken rudder. Everyone is partying until the ship smashes into something.”

          Like “gain of function” viral engineering.

          Imagine a hemorrhagic-fever mutation of the covid ‘spike’ with an 80+ percent mortality rate. And it continue to mutate beyond that…

        • strych9,

          Seriously?????? I question your naked assertion and your response is . . . another naked assertion?? If that is the substance of your argument, you have no argument.

          Give me specifics. What, EXACTLY, are the “conservatives” proposing to impose upon you that you consider ‘tyranny’. Show us on the doll where the bad man touched you.

        • I’ve given you the specifics a dozen fucking times bro but you want another spoonful?

          OK, the creation of a police state that can, at the drop of a magic word remove destroy your rights in terms of Amendments 1,2,4,5,6 and 8 while also destroying State’s rights under 9 and 10.

          “Terrorism”, “drugs”, “DUI” just to pick a short list.

          The Right mostly [blindly] support the WoD, GWoT and DUI laws. Just look up “Civil Asset Forfeiture” and then tell me all about how you support people’s “rights”. No, you support naked government theft under color of authority. They invoke a magic term and your property is their property because you’re a fucking serf in a feudal system. And the Right Wing says “WeLL dA DrUgz Be sOo dAngErOuss wE hAve tO do iT!”. I’ve heard that nonsense before. It’s literally identical to a speech from someone like Feinstein about semi auto rifles.

          You support the severe punishment of victimless crimes because “someone could get hurt” but don’t see how that’s an identical argument to gun control. But then you whine about the 2A that you just cut off at the damn knees.

          “Freedom’s dangerous and scary” says the Right, while they turn around take take it away from people because freedom is dangerous and scary and someone might get hurt.

          Principles? Y’all can barely spell the word.

          Oh, someone blew 0.08BAC at a random “paper’s please” checkpoint and you want them locked the fuck up when you have zero evidence they have harmed anyone other than maybe themselves “because they might hurt someone” but you complain about a 4473 and whine about a proposed AWB? You don’t see the glaring contradiction in those two positions?

          But it’s worse than that because a checkpoint stops people who haven’t even had a SIP of booze. If you support that checkpoint then you support random searches of people without a warrant or even probable cause. Driving down a rando road is a valid reason to stop you and make sure you’re sober. But God help anyone who stops you while you’re OCing, right? “BeCauZe GuNz R mY gOd GivEn rIght!” but how do we know you’re carrying sober?

          BuT yOu’Re nOt DrIvInG, right?

          Then to make it all worse you’re totally fine with .gov locking people in a cage to DIE because they have a medical condition that creates similar behavior to alcohol and causes them to test positive on a breathalyzer. Fuck those people though, right? If one of them realized they were about to get locked in a cage to die and popped the cop in the brainbox half the Right would be calling for the death penalty.

          So much freedom dude, heartwarming, really.

          Support East German Stasi shit for something you don’t like but fly off the fuckin’ handle when it’s applied evenly to you? Hypocrisy writ so large it should be embarrassing but it’s not because people are so brainwashed they can’t even start to see it.

          Then they have the gall to come back and talk about “bodily autonomy” in terms of va cc ines. LOL, wut? How high are you? No, really, you must be brain damaged to not see such a contradiction. Marijuana, .gov choice and that’s totes fine by the Right, no excuses. Mandate a jab and they flip shit screaming about “my body my choice”. Seriously, that’s the clownshoe two-step right there, son.

          And then of course there’s the GWoT, now being weaponized against people complaining about school boards or who question jab mandates. “Right wing extremism! Terrorists!” cry the Left.

          Well guess what, Obama was actually right about something: The Right helped build that with blind support for the GWoT that resulted in essentially zero oversight. Four US citizens killed by drone strikes without due process kinda sets a bad precedent, right? Nah, the Right is totally fine with that because, well, ya know, terrorism. Wouldn’t wanna strain the brain with lofty ideas like that maybe we should take the high road even if it’s maybe, possibly dangerous and the people with those dirty, nasty “rights” are undesirable, eh?

          Yeah, the Right’s totally OK with death from above and no due process. Just say the right word and they jump up to click those jackboots for ya.

          And how do I know the Right is half re-re’s to boot? Because they’re so dickbent about CRT in schools.

          Well, MAYBE if at some point in the last, oh, I dunno 50 fucking years you morons had asked your kids “What did you do in school today? What did you learn?” you’d have known this shit was going on.

          I was SCREAMING about this 20 years ago when I was in high school and virtually everyone told me I was a dumb kid and should STFU. Later I was a stupid “millennial” who couldn’t possibly understand because I was so dumb because I wasn’t a Boomer or something. Now you complain?

          Y’all need a fucking punch in the throat for your arrogance and sloth. Don’t you dare tell me how you’re all about defense of rights and shit when you’ve been nothing but fat, lazy fucks for decades.

          Which, by the by, is why the NRA is a mess. Hired mercs with no oversight, what could possibly go wrong?

          At every damn step of the way the Right has either furthered the evisceration of the BoR through willful blindness OR have fallen for a false dichotomy presented by the Left.

          To wit: The Left plays with language and the Right eats that shit up in multiple ways. The most obvious coming, again, from the War on Drugs.

          The Left twists the meaning of the word “decriminalization”. Instead of it being the “removal of prison time for non-violent drug offenses and a hard push for getting help for the people who need it since most drug and alcohol problems stem from an unresolved psychological problem” the Left convinces the Right that “decriminalization” actually means “the entire removal of any and all consequences followed by encouragement of the behavior”.

          The Right falls for that linguistic game and now you have a false dichotomy of street shitters in San Fran causing people to call for a police state to deal with the problem or a police state to prevent the problem. Notice how any option not involving a police state has disappeared? Think that’s an accident? Do you even think?

          Either way the Left gets a police state. And then they get to turn against you when they do what they’ve done for decades and “expand the definition” of the words they use.

          Don’t believe it? What’s their argument for attacking the 2A? Violent “gun crime”.

          Well, what’s that driven by? Just like Prohibition in the past, it’s driven mostly by a substance-based black market. Well, now little doggie, ain’t that real convenient, eh? Support the WoD and you create the black market that drives the violence that creates the “gun crime” that they come back and use against you as evidence we need to restrict the 2A. At the same time they’re laying the groundwork to run two simultaneous arguments against you decriminalization and also “safety”.

          And two more rotations around the bullshit merry-go-round we go with the “sUpER SmArT AnD PriNcIpLed” Conservatives getting taken to the cleaners every damn time.

          A fun little game that always ends with less freedom and the Right is only too happy to play because they’re myopic.

          Complain about court outcomes all you want, if the courts weren’t actually pretty center-right you’d be living in the Forth Reich already. Truth be told, you probably soon will be and you’ll get to see what all your “conservative ideals” brought you.

        • @LampOfDiogenes

          I’m pretty sure he is referring to the general ideas and concepts that’s being used in conservatism to attempt to insert government into areas they don’t belong (for example, forcing vaccines and mask wear) thus expanding government control and setting exploitable precedent while at the same time seeking more control over how rights are exercised (for example, broad and draconian limits on or abolishment of 2A concepts or exercise, and the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments) … all supposedly for our own good.

          I think C.S. Lewis summed it up closely enough with…

          “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

          —- C.S. Lewis”

        • Oh, yes, .40 cal, it’s DEFINITELY the conservatives that are pushing vaccine mandates, amirite??? AYFKMRN??? And Strych9 is simply fighting straw men. These supposed “conservatives” he is talking about don’t exist, except in his fevered imagination.

          There are SOME ‘conservatives’ that still support the War on Drugs (but damn few, in my experience). War on Terror?? Start naming names. Who, exactly??? Liz Cheney? Nobody considers that vile witch a conservative. The whole “Never Trump” crowd?? Yeah, very conservative, that bunch of grifters. Civil forfeiture?? Not anyone I know supports it (other than cops, who fund their departments with it). Most conservatives I know went more libertarian a long time ago, but Strych is busy tilting at non-existent windmills (using inane biblical “interpretations”, now -what will he think of, next????). Sorry, you’ll have to do WAY better than your unhinged examples – like ACTUALLY CITING a modern “conservative” ACTUALLY saying what you are accusing them of. So far, you are batting .000.

      • If you know who Bret Weinstein is you would know about how and why he was hunted by crazed leftists. He is absolutely aware of the threat of tyranny posed by the left.
        However
        1) He’s still a liberal writing to a primarily liberal audience, so equating the threat of the right and left makes rhetorical sense.
        2) To pretend that threats to freedom only come from the left requires impressive blindness and rhetorical knot tying. Commies often do the same to avoid having to either having to admit the failures of communism or defend the indefensible.

    • It’s too late for Bret Weinstein. He and other Left wingers like him helped to make exercising your civil rights much more difficult. He went from one left wing area to another left wing area. The only reason he is able to get a gun in Oregon now, is because the few liberty minded people that are still in office, have held back the left wing tyrants.

  7. While Weinstein makes a good case for those who think in terms of the collective, it’s an arguement that doesn’t have to be made.
    The individual right to self defense, with any weapon and by any means, trumps all collective arguements.

    • “…Weinstein makes a good case for those who think in terms of the collective, it’s an arguement that doesn’t have to be made.”

      Yes, it does. That article has the power to wake people up on that side, and I applaud him making that effort…

    • Weinstein speaks B S from the very onset and it is clearly illustrated in the first paragraph. His use of the words “history”, “vagueness” and “mysterious” expose his still lingering liberal views. The last sentence in that paragraph clearly expresses his attempt to straddle a fence, “The founders believed the people needed to be able to defend their free state — with deadly force — whether that refers to a geographical state, or a state of being, or both.”
      He does not seem to make any firm definite statements as to his support or even understanding of the 2nd amendment. One wonders, did this new revelation occur overnight after years of holding on to the opposite(liberal) view? Is Weinstein for real or a phony?

      • I got off at “vagueness”, myself. 27 words which any 8th grader could understand without problem, if you think it’s “vague”, that would be because it very clearly does not say what you want it to say.

        • I also had to stop reading. I’m trying to finish reading what he wrote. But it’s hard to deal with a “super educated person” who thinks only the state should have guns. And then they also believe that state has too much power???

  8. I suppose it’s nice to see these people turn toward the light. It’d be nicer to hear one them admit their role in creating this mess in the first place and nicer still yet very unlikely to hear one apologize.

  9. He thinks only “modern” weapons can be used by an individual to kill “dozens”.

    It’s actually fairly easy for an individual to kill thousands with ancient or antique weapons.

    It ain’t the weapon, it is the intent of the human that deploys that weapon that poses the threat.

    • Like, say, an avowed black nationalist that uses a vehicle? Have we all forgotten about the Nation of Islam terrorist that murdered a Capitol police officer? That was swept under the rug fast wasn’t it? If they could have labeled him a white supremacist or a Trump supporter, then they’d still be talking about it.

      They literally made up stories about Trump supporters murdering a Capitol police officer, and hid a story about a real murder. Think about that one.

    • Agreed. The Nice truck attack ended in 86 dead and 458 injured, zero with his handgun.
      We see more and more truck attacks as killers see the superior lethality.
      It’s the will to kill not the tool.
      There’s a horrible list; gasoline arson in Japan (Bluebird massacre also in Montreal), other truck killings in Germany, Canada, but anti gunners get very angry when you point these out.

  10. “A single deranged or careless person can rob us of anyone, at anytime.”
    Does he mean rob someone of life?
    Or did he mean , ‘anything’?
    .
    BTW, last week I didn’t lock my car and lo and behold somebody tried to steal my stereo, it might be worth two bucks at the pawn shop. I’m like WTF, dumb ass methheads will steal anything.
    So my girlfiend gets all riled up about it and calls the cops and ask, “If somebody is breaking into my car can I shoot the son of a bitch?” the cop said yes but I told her I wouldn’t go on what the cop said. I told her I figure if you went out there and tried to stop them and they pulled something funny, like attack you or something you could shoot them but just to start blasting cause their thieving your car will probably get you throwed in jail. Chimpanzees are a little more violent then possums, I reckon on account of them being closer DNA wise to a human?

    • Methheads will steal anything and are damned industrious about getting into things too.

      Also, the cop was right you can shoot them. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea from your point of view.

      • Yeah, you *can* shoot someone for just standing there, too, and you *can* go to prison for it, as well!

        • Hopefully in the near future we will be able to shoot people dead on sight. With the stolen goods still in their hands.

    • They’ll do hundreds to thousands of dollars in damage to your car to get a few dollars in loose change.

      • If a criminal smashes a police car they will be arrested. But if a criminal smashes your car??? The police will take a report over the phone.

      • You should see what they’ll do to a $250K welding rig.

        Once they get access to a single tool they’ll use it to get access to others and all the dominos fall. Damned difficult to keep them out, impossible really. I’ve seen them steal a whole truck that was triple chained to a 3′ diameter reinforced concrete post.

        Surprising to watch too. They know how to fire up a generator/welder, run an oxy torch and use powertools.

        Which is probably because most of them work in the trades these days. No one works a manual labor job on a 12 hour shift harder than a tweaker. They’re not real smart about it but… damn do they work. Until they get paid and go blow it all on tina.

        They’re oddly also impervious to serious injury in a lot of cases. At first you figure they’ll feel it tomorrow. Nah, they’re back doing the same thing again after they hit that pipe. Almost superhuman. You can see why the Nazis issued the stuff to combat troops. Whole different animal from crackheads.

        Short life span though and usually dumb as shit because of the way meth affects the brain.

  11. {On basic courtesy}

    “I suspect the notable courtesy was at least partly the natural result of the level of armament. The staff were surely all armed. So too, I would guess, were the clientele — it is legal in Oregon to have a concealed handgun given the proper, easily obtained permit.”

    He got a for-real example of Heinlein’s “An armed society, is a polite society”.

    Yes, the freedom to own weapons means that some will abuse that trust. But the alternative is simply unacceptable. it has been proven time-after-time-after-time, “Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.”

    The 2A is the veto of 2 wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner…

    • There ain’t a whole lot of “liberals” left. Mebbe Alan Dershowitz for one. No yer a Leftard fella. Good luck ‘splaining the 2nd to me. Fairly happy with my cheap(er!)brass 9mm I got yesterday. Support small business Saturday!

      • There are a lot of people who can’t drop the label though.

        It’s funny to hear someone like Tim Poole explain his politics. “I’m a liberal but [insert list of entirely non-liberal positions]”.

  12. I often find the phrase “Right to Self-Defense’ odd enough, much like the arguments on both sides.

    If something/someone tries to harm/kill me, I harm/kill them right back…..or I run away very fast. Its nature, all creatures on this planet. Fight or Flight. Learned what is called in grammar school science.

    No State gives us this Right, it’s in our genetic makeup at the instinctual level. Now, how we acquired these instincts is another question for another time.

    ~just my opinion`

  13. “The police withdrawn to appease the mob”, this fact has sold millions of guns.
    There is zero doubt that without fear of “rooftop Koreans” those mobs would have purged countless “un-woke”. P.S. If you see a Molotov being lit you need to stop the thrower before he launches it.

    • Yet this board seems to roll over itself to celebrate the convictions of the men who defended themselves from Arhmaud Arburey.

      The biggest threat to our 2A rights is the 2A community itself. We’ll gladly throw ourselves under the bus to show the left how not racist or fascist we are.

      Bret is a weird *** who wants you to take ivermectin and die of COVID.

      We need to be careful of entryism; people who are not us- joining our cause and steering it into a direction that isn’t best for us. Look at the Republican Party. They are the Washington Generals at this point- controlled opposition.

      If you punch harder right, than left… think about why.

      • rant7. They did not defend themselves from Arbery, they murdered him. And no amount of alternate reality bs will change that.

        As for fascism? Nobody does it as well as the SS/antifa. The traditonal fascist, like you, are slackers in comparison.

        • Wasn’t rant7, AFAIK. Different nick, and doesn’t read like rant7. I disagree with rant7 on the daily, but don’t accuse him of ish he isn’t responsible for.

      • We celebrate their conviction because they were criminals. They didn’t witness a crime, so they couldn’t make a citizen’s arrest. They illegally chased and detained a man with lethal force. When the victim attempted to stop their use of deadly force, they shot him. Despite how the media may label us, we aren’t racists who automatically support the white guy.

        We also celebrated Rittenhouse’s acquittal because he was innocent. Force was initiated against him first, and then he responded with lethal force.

        We celebrate justice here.

        • I celebrate Arbery, he died on his feet. I would bet big bucks they were going to lynch him, and he chose to die fighting. I would also bet he was also sure they intended to kill him. I mean, they collected an armed mob and hunted him down, corralled him and forced him into the kill zone. I am sure he was a big threat after being shot once at contact distance with a 12-guage, of course he had to be shot again. And again. There is no sentence too cruel for these disgraceful turds.

    • If you see a Molotov being lit, you need to stop the thrower and then empty your shotgun at everyone around him.

  14. “In the gun shop, no one was troubled by novices, or even liberals. Explanations were patient. It’s a surprisingly courteous, agreeable, and highly technical culture: no one knows more than gun enthusiasts about the hazards that come with firearms, and such people take a very dim view of those who treat guns casually.”

    Well done, Mr. and Mrs. Proprietor, and thank you, Mr. Liberal, for acknowledging this.

    • The only part in that sentence I disagree with is “surprisingly.” It should be no surprise at all. But f you’re coming from the so-called liberal (i.e., collectivist) camp as he was, the misperception is understandable.

      • Of course, after all, he has been trained by his ‘betters’ that we gun people are all knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, sister-fvcking morons… 😉

  15. “many Western nations have managed crime as well or better than the US without the population being armed”

    Yeah, but the population is just a bit different there than here. When will people wake up to that?

    • The next sentence is the key.

      “On long timescales, however, I suspect this trend reverses. A nation’s descent into tyranny can kill millions…”

      • The difference between us and the rest of the world is we will not turn in our guns, when the government tells us to. After the year 2020, there are now millions of Americans who now don’t believe the government is there to help them. There was no gun culture by the individual, in Russia, or China, or Germany. And not even in the UK.

        America is just different when it comes to gun ownership, than the rest of the western world.

  16. The gun although important is only one aspect of having a secure society. The other aspect is what we are seeing today which is the erosion of that right to defending one’s own life.

    I can still remember the day that a high speed police chase ended right outside my front door. The front door of my house that is on a highly desirable leafy lined street in a deep deep blue state but in a location where nothing exciting ever happened before, except when it does happen. Yes these guys were being chased by police but they managed to get out of their car to consider a safe direction to run before the cops could chase them on foot. My front door was only 25 feet away and these guys could have run into the house and used my daughter and I as hostages. Who knows what people will do when they are truly desperate and know they are facing decades if not the rest of their lives in prison.

    Fast forward a few years and it was a beautiful summer morning and I was outside drinking some coffee and enjoying a peaceful moment when I could hear “stop! Police!” and running out of the woods was a suspect being chased by 2 cops. The suspect managed to grab one of the cops and ram him head first into a stone retaining wall on my neighbors property. Once another unit arrived a few seconds later the suspect was finally wrestled to the ground and I got to see it all including the cop getting hauled away in an ambulance.

    So crime was catching up to me even in my quiet peaceful suburb. Never mind all the high falutin talk about tyranny, although that’s important, by the time the second incident happened I was carrying my 9mm just in the off chance that the suspect managed to get the gun away from the cop he slammed into the stone wall.

    I would wager that many people have never witnessed violent behavior and so believe they are immune. I know I did. I went from having a ‘meh’ just grab all the guns to being a passionate 2A defender just like that (snap of the fingers). I assume that I am not alone either. Being on the other side of gun street made me realize just how silly and stupid all of these gun laws are not to mention violating every corner of the constitution.

    As far as I’m concerned guns should be ubiquitous in deep blue crime ridden cities just as much as the most rural outpost. The inner city poor have just as much right to defend themselves as the country squire.

        • “The bad goes down wherever the people are not armed.”

          “You can’t rape a .38”.

          Said an armed woman… 🙂

    • “I would wager that many people have never witnessed violent behavior and so believe they are immune. ”

      Not me. I’ve witnessed no more violence than a street fight. No weapons. And the guys eventually shook hands and went back inside for another beer.

      But after reading history, and understanding how precarious and fragile civilization is, anyone paying attention shouldn’t feel they are immune.

      • “Not me. I’ve witnessed no more violence than a street fight. No weapons. And the guys eventually shook hands and went back inside for another beer.”

        There was a difference there –

        The 2 combatants had a degree of respect for each other.

        That doesn’t exist when it’s a human predator-prey situation…

  17. Bret Weinstein spent his whole adult life as a proto-SJW, teaching and advocating the crap that got the left where it is now. Now that he’s having some vague pangs that he screwed up doesn’t in the least cause me to view him with any respect or credibility.

    A decently humble man would simply shut his mouth and never publicly pontificate again.

    • Agree. He should have been able to see his mistakes BEFORE he ever opened his mouth in the first place.

    • I might have some respect for him if he were to spend a few years preaching the opposite of what he has done for most of his adult life. And admit he was wrong all along.

        • He has a VERY LONG WAY TO GO before he can be believed about his now recent conversion.

          Forgiveness is a Christian thing. And he has much to be sorry for. Because he as an intellectual helped to create the world he now finds himself in.

          Kyle Rittenhouse a 17 year old, has a better understanding of civil rights than does Bret Weinstein.

    • Or, the moral alternative would be to publicly state: “I was wrong. My belief system was anti-factual and deluded. I have reconsidered, and reality compels me to say that the ‘correct’ view is that individual liberty, including the right to self-defense, is the correct point of view.”

      But, as mentioned, he’s a committed, life-long Leftist, and has to TRY to find some way to connect his (idiot) Leftist beliefs with reality.

      • I’m curious if you’ll live up to your claims when my comment provided but a few of the details you asked for on how the Right is anti-freedom gets out of moderation.

        I suspect I know the answer but there’s always hope that maybe you can put the lamp down and admit that you’ve found what you claim to seek; Someone honest enough to tell you things you don’t want to hear because they discovered they themselves made those same mistakes and bought the same nonsense.

        • You provided ZERO details of anything, Strych – you asserted a bunch of positions you CLAIM are conservative, and name not ONE SINGLE actual ‘conservative’ that asserts those positions. Do better, if you are capable. Who are these ‘conservatives’ hiding under your bed????

  18. I think that it is a good thing that he is seeing more of the whole picture. Maybe some of the gun haters will listen to him. I abhor misuse of tools, be they a screwdriver, an automobile, or a firearm. Misusing one to hurt others is wrong, but it is not the fault of the tool, it is the operator’s fault.
    There should be a special group of cells in a very cold prison for the individuals.

    • Sure Weinstein sees the whole picture, but the difference is his understanding and acceptance. A zebra may change their stripes, however not overnight.

    • I was leaning that way, too, but he’s American. No idea why he Britished his spelling.

      As for a leftist…not really, not anymore. He still thinks of himself as a liberal, but he has left the collectivist/leftist plantation, and if he keeps going down the road he’s on, he’s bound to realize that what’s called liberal now is anything but. Heck, I think logically he already knows it, but it’s emotionally difficult to separate from something you’ve believed in all your life.

      • Well, he’s right over the river from Vancouver so his editor could easily be Canadian or use of U could have slipped in to his spelling pretty easy. Kicking spellings like “harbour” was pretty hard when I came back from being in NZ for a year.

        IRL, I think the website (unherd.com) is the actual answer. The server’s in Tempe, AZ but that doesn’t mean much since it’s a godaddy domain.

        But a bit of deeper digging indicates that the company is UK based, founded in 2017 and edited by Sally Chatterton (Daily Telegraph, Independent) and Freddie Sayers (YouGov, Home Politics), both UK citizens.

        The site operates based on an endowment donated by Sir Paul Marshall, an investor and former Liberal Democrat who supported Brexit and has recently started giving BIG money to the UK’s Conservative Party (which doesn’t say much IMHO since BoJo is a clown in my view but… whatever). Like £500,000 at a crack kind of big money.

        At a glance Sir Marshall seems to be some sort of reformed Liberal starting around 2015/16.

  19. Sounds like Weinstein is a liberal who was smacked upside the head by reality when, as he puts it, he was falsely accused of “racism” and beset upon in his home by a mob, and the police were nowhere to be seen to protect him.

    A lot of liberals live in theory land, disassociated from the real world effects of their “social justice” policy fantasies. It comes as a shock to them when in real life, human nature doesn’t conform to their wishes.

    Unlike modern “liberals” the genius of the Founders is that they were pretty clear eyed about human nature and wrote our founding documents with it in mind. Unfortunately, too many people nowadays want their government to act according to how they want the world to be and not how it really is.

  20. We’re seeing the avalanche of liberals realizing they aren’t leftists (Bill Maher probably the most famous recent example, the lawmakers that won’t side with the Jihad Squad, etc). That leftists and neocons are on the same team, while the liberals and vast majority of conservatives are on the same team. But we’ve been pitted against one another while the leftists and neocons pretend they’re at odds with one another.

  21. It’s pretty impressive to watch this thread grow and realize that a pretty large percentage of people here have zero idea who this guy is or what he’s really saying because they have zero idea who he’s actually talking to but are more than willing to shit on the guy.

    It’s an article written specifically to be read by liberals and comes with the byline “Liberty needs defending from the threat of tyranny”.

    A former Progressive turned moderate talking about the 2A defending the country from tyranny and nearly half of you shit on him for it? Seriously, WTAF more could you want?

    “Target audience”. It’s not you, it’s people you can’t talk to so he’s doing it for you because he can. He’s doing you a fucking favor!

    Jesus, it’s like a crayon eating contest in this country these days.

  22. “…. the fraction of the citizenry who believes tyranny could happen here is rising rapidly, even if we don’t necessarily agree on its most likely source.”

    Most likely source? Lol

    The source doesn’t matter. Tyranny and oppression come from many sources and are not just figments of peoples imaginations. It’s been with us throughout history just as it’s in this world today. There are those that foolishly believe it can’t happen in the states. I wonder how many would recognize tyranny happening right in front of their face.

    • Look at the percentage of people who support economic lockdowns and mandatory masking in public. There’s your answer, and it isn’t a very encouraging one.

  23. Bret Weinstein, Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald and other liberals were the precursors of “social justice.” The roots of this madness were planted in the 1960s. Now these three “liberals” and others like them are recoiling at the monster they created.

    I hope they’re scared sh!tless. They deserve it.

    • Greenwald is the oldest of them, born in 1967. Weiss wasn’t even born until the mid 1980’s.

      How exactly was he involved in planting the roots of this at two years old?

      Oh, wait, let’s actually go to facts and not angry feelz for a minute.

      Brave New World was written in 1931 and is based on what was known about manipulation of at the population level at that point in time.

      Sorry, brah, this shit’s older than virtually anyone currently alive.

    • “Bret Weinstein, Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald and other liberals were the precursors of “social justice.””

      You obviously don’t know who Bari Weiss is. She’s in her 20s. The attack mob at the NYT ran her out of the newsroom when she expressed a non-‘woke’ opinion.

      Try reading her substack column sometime, it’s worth the read…

      • Eh, some of this stuff is like saying “Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is” to see what reaction you get.

        The reaction tells you a bit about the person based on their reaction. Reactions that indicate familiarity indicate interests and may be an indication of age depending on how strong the familiarity response is.

        • OK, strych9,

          Tell us you don’t actually have a frickin’ clue, without saying you don’t have a frickin’ clue.

          People of ANY age, who follow news (and seek to understand the foe) know who Weiss is. I’m guessing I’m older than you, and I know who she is, and followed her story. Try actually thinking, and not basing your opinions on stereotypes. Opens up the world, remarkably.

        • What the actual fuck are you talking about?

          You jump into a thread that doesn’t involve you and wrap an insult in nonsensical bullshit that makes no point but tell me that I’m clueless?

          LOL! Eat some more paste and try to pick a favor flavor.

        • I didn’t realize I needed your permission to comment on an open thread, Strych9. If you don’t like my comments, don’t read them. Spare me your word salad nonsense, however. You probably think you have a point in there, somewhere. You would be wrong about that, too.

    • Tactics sound familiar? They’ve been doing this for a century. It had spread into certain universities by the 60’s. Now it’s in public grade schools. It’s still spreading. It’s much more dangerous than the Xi Covid variant.

      • Dude, we have a narrative that sets people against each other based on which generation they were born into. You’re not assisting in the advancement of that narrative by presenting facts and stuff.

        Please, go home and readjust yourself before returning in the right frame of mind to engage in generational warfare.

        You’ve quite clearly had too much to think for one day. Feel better. Soma helps.

  24. Lots of Conservatives consist of those who wise up and escape the democRat plantation. It does not happen overnight. The bozo relative, friend, etc. you see who is stuck on stupid today maybe a different individual in months or years to come. Plenty of people today make it clear they will never vote for a democRat again. I’ve heard people apologize for being so stupid to have wasted their life on demoCrap, etc.

    Going tit for tat with a nitwit over firearms is a waste of time because there’s always another angle for you to explain, etc. If you know someone stuck on stupid about firearms print the following, sign and date it and give it to them as the final word on the subject. Tell them to fact check it all they want.

    1) The Second Amendment is one thing.

    2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, knives, vehicles, etc. is another thing.

    3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing.

  25. Demographics! If one were to look at countries with much lower rates of homicides and violent crime one would notice a similarity in that the overall population is near humongous in it’s culture and history.
    Also, many Liberals would be fine with Tyranny because they believe that they will be behind the reins, until the late night knock on the door.

  26. Good article. He sort or reminds me of the late actor Ron Silver, in a sense. Like Silver, Bret is a liberal who has had an awakening on a specific issue (guns here, terrorism for Silver after 9/11) due to a hard dose of reality.

  27. “For my part, I don’t believe it. In fact, I believe I know better, both as a scholar and as someone who was falsely accused of racism and hunted in my own neighbourhood — with the police withdrawn in a foolish attempt to appease the mob.”

    I suspect this was the transforming eye-opening experience for him that made him change his mind.

    Ever anti-gun person I have known of that has been the victim of violent crime or under threat of such violent crime has changed their minds about gun ownership and now own guns and regularly carry.

    The latest I know of, a very fanatical anti-gun lady that had been at the front of many anti-gun protests over the years. That all changed the day she was robbed and beaten almost to death by three guys when a good guy with a gun happened along and saw what was happening and intervened and repelled the attack by defensive gun use. Her first stop out of the hospital was one of the gun stores she had protested in front of over the years – she purchased two guns and wanted to enroll in a course that would teach her how to put bad guys down and protect herself.

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