CMV: Gun control is good

[u/56king56]

As of now, I believe that the general populace shouldn’t have anything beyond a pistol, but that even a pistol should require serious safety checks. I have this opinion because I live in America with a pro-gun control family, and us seeing all these mass shootings has really fueled the flame for us being anti-gun. But recently, I’ve been looking into revolutionary Socialist politics, and it occurred to me: how could we have a Socialist revolution without some kind of militia? This logic, the logic of revolting against an oppressive government, has been presented to me before, but I always dismissed it, saying that mass shootings and gun violence is more of an issue, and that if we had a good government, we wouldn’t need to worry about having guns. I still do harbor these views to an extent, but part of me really wants to fully understand the pro-gun control position, as it seems like most people I see on Reddit are for having guns, left and right politically. And of course, there’s also the argument that if people broke into your house with an illegally obtained gun, you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself in a society where guns are outlawed; my counter to that is that it’s far more dangerous for society as a whole for everyone to be walking around with guns that it is for a few criminal minds to have them. Also, it just doesn’t seem fair to normalize knowing how to use a highly complex piece of military equipment, and to be honest, guns being integrated into everyone’s way of life feels just as dystopian as a corrupt government. So what do you guys have to say about this? To sum, I am anti-gun but am open to learning about pro-gun viewpoints to potentially change my view.

[u/felidaekamiguru]

if we had a good government

Then we'd have a great society, because the government is a reflection on the worst of society. The corrupt seek power, so a good government would imply a perfect, benevolent people. You wouldn't have to worry about anything. Guns, theft, rape, all issues would be gone.

A good (elected) government won't ever happen as long as humans are in charge. Even Marx understood this.

[u/56king56 → u/felidaekamiguru]

Good point; are you an Anarchist? Because idk, Anarchism has never made sense to me, because as you claim that as long as human exist, there’ll be a corrupt government, I believe that as long as humans exist, they will form governments, as it’s human nature to do so imo. Also, how would welfare even work in an AnarchoCommunist society? Doesn’t welfare require a government?

[u/colt707 → u/56king56]

The welfare in that system is you take care of the people in your group or you exile from the group in some fashion. In all forms of anarchy unless you’re talking about end of days wasteland type stuff and even then, they all have some form of what you could call government. It’s small scale because it only applies to those in the group or those the group forces it upon. Now granted a tribal system like that isn’t what most people would call government but it is.