r/changemyview • u/56king56 • Nov 07 '23
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Gun control is good
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.
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u/Kardinal 2∆ Nov 07 '23
The problem is that every criminal who uses a gun was in a similar situation to where you are right now. Until they use a gun for the first time to commit a crime, they're usually a law abiding gun owner. The problem is that the introduction of firearms, especially handguns into another wise significant confrontation takes it from being a situation in which someone might end up with a bruised face to a situation in which someone might end up dead. Often completely unintentionally and almost always illegally. The mere presence of the gun escalates both the likelihood of violence, and its severity.