This comment is solely for
>>109660I'm sorry. It had never occurred to me until this moment that calling gun ownership a basic freedom implied that some other area was lacking in a basic freedom. I did not mean to imply that. While it's true that I do place some value on firearms for self defense, that's not what I was in reference to. I what I meant was that I hold the gun as symbol. It's not for everybody and I'm sure each people have a different thing to fill this role, equally symbolic. I'm gonna get ridiculed for this so hard but let me share a poem:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
It's a symbol for some Americans of our heritage, of our bravery and of our right to stand up to the man. I absolutely believe that freedom of speech, freedom to a trial, freedom of religion are all more important but the freedom to have a gun symbolizes (and even if only as a symbol) that I will stand up for those rights.
So that's what having a gun is to me. It's what Europeans often call, "hurr muh freedumbs". I can appreciate that it's largely an American thing these days. That there can be other symbols for other peoples and other ways. I never meant to imply otherwise and am sorry if I did.
I won't bump the thread again.
