Any other liberals?

[Mcuraddoc]

Thank you all for answering my questions about my new hand gun. I appreciate your candor and honesty.

To be very honest, buying a hand-gun was not an easy decision. I have long been an advocate of a heavily regulated gun industry. However, recent events have lead me to realize I can't expect the police to be everywhere all the time. I had to be able to stand up for myself. I still wrestle with this choice I've made.

Are there anyother folks out there who have wresteled with the decision to arm themselves?

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

No. But I'm a definite social liberal, economic liberal to moderate, and a loather of so-called "neo-conservatism". Does that count? If it helps, us "gun nuts" have long realized that a person on the 'wrong' side of the gun issue is just someone who hasn't been mugged yet, or otherwise been hit on the head with an incident that shows the deep need for self-defense tools. The major political party typically associated with "liberalism" in this country (starts with a D) is definitely on the wrong side of the gun issue, at the national level.

 

[eflatminor]

I suspect very few. We're mostly Conservatives and Libertarians. Regardless of who we vote for, we tend to be united in the idea that what's best for the individual should be left up to that individual, not anyone else and certainly not the government. This applies to everything from personal protection to retirement savings to health care. Nothing boils the blood quicker than a government official that seeks to regulate my activities, activities that do not harm another in any way, because they think they know what's best. History shows again and again that they do not.

 

[RonE]

I have never had to wrestle with the choice of gun or no gun. My conscience and choice has always been clear: Guns are good, use them, don't abuse them.

 

[esheato]

Mcuraddoc,

May I ask what events have swayed your opinion?

Thanks,

Ed

 

[Mcuraddoc]

Thanks folks!

Folks-

Thanks for your support. I'm getting better with the use of my gun and a local range (Shooter's World for those folks in Az.) has been doing well at educating me so I don't shoot my face off or loose my sense of respect of the power I've recently choosen to take resonsibilty for...

 

[SuperNaut]

I'm philosophically an anarcho-capitalist but a Jeffersonian Constitutionalist in practice. Since I agree with a lot of what Locke, Hume, Hobbes, Voltaire, etc. have written that also makes many of my ideas lean towards classical liberalism. IOW the Founding Fathers had some great ideas derived from some great teachers.

This currently fashionable neo-liberalism that seeks to control speech, thought, behavior, markets, religions, etc,. is an abomination IMHO. Stop struggling with your decision to arm yourself, you are beginning to cast-off no small amount of brainwashing. Taking ownership of your own protection is actually you taking ownership of your own destiny.

Congratulations.

 

[kcshooter]

I also have never had to think twice about owning a gun and being prepared to defend myself.

I do find myself of the liberal side of social/econ issues quite often. I also find occasionally I have somewhat conservative values in some areas. I never sway too far from the middle either way. When asked I usually reply "I'm a moderate liberal who votes third party or votes only on the issue". I most frequently align myself with libertarian politics as a whole, but never call myself libertarian, and certainly never a Democrat or republican.

I don't see how any political alignment can fall in with denying people a right to doing everything and anything they can to stay alive when under attack.

 

[Prepster]

I'm a paranoid libertarian, so I suppose socially I'm quite liberal. I'm kind-of like you! Yay!

 

[Mcuraddoc]

To Ed...

I've choosen to spend my life caring for victims of Trauma. I spent 8 years in post-graduate education studying how to care for trauma patients. Every 4 years, as part of my Trauma Re-Certification, I have to do a 3 week ride-along in the back of a medic's rig.

The last time I had to do this, I was in Detriot. I was trying to intubate (or manage an airway) for some gang banger that had been shot in the chest (later died in the Trauma bay). Anyway, during my attempts to intubate, I was lying on the asphault and Detroit PD wasn't able to keep the scene secure. We got jumped. That was 4 years ago...

I can't expect anyone to manage my safety except me. The local PDs, ATF, DEA and Sheriff's offices are streatched too thin and I won't put anyone's life in front of mine...how good am I to the patient I'm trying to help if I'm dead?

Thanks for asking....

 

[Loomis]

Liberal, libertarian, liberty...all start with the same 4 letters. Yet the first of those three words is somehow completely different than the other two. It wasn't always that way. The Democrat party has been hijacked by communists, environmental fascists, and alternative lifestyle freeks. The Democrat party is quickly becoming the party of anti-americanism.

It's really sad. I hope the libertarian party replaces the Democrat party soon.

 

[no_problem]

<<I was lying on the asphault and Detroit PD wasn't able to keep the scene secure. We got jumped. That was 4 years ago...>>

I am sorry to hear this. It is sad that you were trying to help one of them and in the process, you got jumped. It is not a difficult conclusion to make: There are simply some people in society that cannot behave in a civilized manner. And the only one responsible for your safety is you.

There are many people out there who are decent, but there are yet more who will take advantage of your decency. It's simple, you have to protect yourself.

 

[Mr_Rogers]

I love clean air, water with healthy fish, to see the mountains, to feel that the person doing the work is paid a rate commensurate with the value of the time he spends at work.

I see the attitude of "don't tax me" while some poor individual dies of cancer they can't afford to get treated, through no fault of their own, as crass selfishness.

Guess that makes me a liberal.

I still own enough hardware to constitute an armory.

 

[theotherwaldo]

Lotta folks have forgotten that a third of the country used to believe that (D) stood for Dixiecrat. 'Course, that was before Slick Willie (Gag).

 

[Kind of Blued]

I'm a left-leaning Libertarian who thinks one should be able to buy machine guns at the hardware store...

 

[snipe300]

It is so nice to hear from a self proclaimed liberal that won't just outright bash gun owners. Just for the record, I tend to be a conservative in reference to interpreting the constitution, but I don't necessarily agree with any one party on all issues.

 

[makarovnik]

Guns and health care for all.

 

[Vaarok]

I don't care what your political alignment is, I care what your stance on firearm ownership is. And it's on my side, so you are okay by me.

 

[Deus Machina]

Republicans accuse me of being liberal, Democrats peg me as conservative. I'm unaligned, officially, and figuring out who to vote for sucks.

I'm a big believer in personal rights and the idea of 'live and let live', and understand that the former point is more important than the latter at the worst times. Unfortunately, the people charged with your safety can't provide it.

Throw off the 'dealer of death' image of firearms the far left have drilled into you, and consider it insurance. Or preemptive intubation. Take it to the range and, if it strikes you, take up target shooting and have fun with it.

It's just an object. You control it.

 

[KP89]

It depends on the issue, I pick and choose what things I support verses a singular present ideology.

I am an eco-libertarian/eco-liberal/conservative cross.

 

[danweasel]

I hate all politicians equally. I believe that people should care more for each other than they care about money. Or if someone does drugs. Or humps guys. Who cares as long as it's not in the street? Does it make me a liberal if I think that GWB is stupid? Or that american politics is a joke? Because people have called me one. I will never forgive the people that voted for some A-Hole to run this country into the ground TWICE, just because his (moronic I agree) opponents were not "badass" enough.

Look at the elections, what a childish whine fest. "Your a racist!", "Your a sexist!" What does this matter? Reality TV for the people who just can't comprehend American Idol.

So Yeah, I own an AK and live in Alaska, I am also a soldier in the US Army.

I just think that we need to grow up or this country is done.

 

[pax]

Are there anyother folks out there who have wresteled with the decision to arm themselves?

Yes, but in a moral sense, not so much in a political sense. You'll find a lot of my musings on those topics on my website, if you're interested. (Link's in the sig line.)

pax

 

[JCMAG]

I don't know much about political parties. I find the less I know, the happier I am.

I know a few things for sure: The government is irresponsible by design. It is a relatively small group of people attempting to enforce one standard onto 300 million people.

If this is for basic laws, good. If it is for the collective national defense, good. If it is for organizing international trade, good.

If it is telling me how to live and what to believe, bad.

I am no party other than that of the citizenry of the United States of America and I'll be damned if any politician is going to write some irrelevant law that says my life and the lives of my loved ones aren't worth protecting.

Put that in whatever party you want to, categorization doesn't change the thing itself.

J. C. Mag

. I will never forgive the people that voted for some A-Hole to run this country into the ground TWICE, just because his (moronic I agree) opponents were not "badass" enough.

Aw, shucks, Danny. And here I don't suppose that we've ever even met. Give a guy a chance

 

[plexreticle]

Taking money from the middle class and giving it to the poor = Liberal.

Taking money from the middle class and giving it to the rich = conservative.

I'm for not taking anymore of my money and restoring some of my rights. That candidate wasn't nominated unfortunately.

 

[OldCowHand]

Are there anyother folks out there who have wresteled with the decision to arm themselves?

I think everybody wrestles with that decision in some fashion. I grew up in a household that didn't have toy guns -- only real ones -- and I've owned weapons since I was 11. Yet even I have asked myself the questions:

1. Am I willing to kill, swiftly and without compunction, someone who is trying to kill or seriously injure me or one of my loved ones? (If the answer here is "no," that's okay, but don't bother with any of the remaining questions -- they're pre-empted by this answer).
2. Am I able to use [fill in the tool of choice here: shotgun, revolver, knife, etc.] effectively and instinctually to stop an attacker with minimal endangerment of innocent bystanders? If not, am I willing to train until I am?
3. Am I confident of my ability to identify a situation that justifies my use of deadly force in time to bring that force to bear?

I don't think this is a liberal-versus-conservative thing. It's way more visceral than politics. It comes down to how important we think our survival is, and that of our loved ones, and whether we're willing to prepare ourselves to stand for what we have come to view as of primary importance.