Opinion of Obama's gun speech today

[homelycooking]

Gun control policy should reflect the original intent of the Founders. Accordingly, everyone should be allowed to own and openly carry as many muzzle-loading flintlock muskets as they would like.

[homelycooking]

How is the notion that the Constitution guarantees a right to own AR-15s (just to give an example of a modern gun) more absurd than the notion that it guarantees a right to get an abortion or guarantees two men a right to marry each other?

What exactly does an AR-15 accomplish that a musket doesn't?

[homelycooking]

So that you can fire and reload more quickly?

[homelycooking]

Why are those considerations (pressure, caliber, cartridges) important to you?

[homelycooking]

I'll state the question more clearly: Why does it matter to you how efficient or powerful a firearm is?

[homelycooking]

If you were Clint Eastwood and your neighborhood was the set of a spaghetti Western, I could understand your concern about the ethos of "one shot, one kill". American mythology is founded on similar ideas of frontier masculinity and the trusty firearm with which the hero tames the hostile Frontier. People fantasize about being the protagonist, dealing out justice from the barrel of a Colt .45 (it's what's for dinner), and protecting themselves and their property from thieves and bandits. It seems to me that the decision to arm oneself depends more on the appeal of that script than on a reasonable threat assessment of the risks encountered whilst living in a suburban neighborhood.

People own guns for other reasons, though. I suppose that my neighbor's interest in and ownership of firearms is not that different from my other neighbor's interest in pre-decimal British coinage. From an engineering or historical standpoint, I understand why someone might want to explore how guns are manufactured or the roles they've played in American history. If my neighbor enjoys hunting game or harbors some private delusions about nocturnal marauders sacking our neighborhood, that's his business. I don't see why my one neighbor's hobby deserves Constitutional protection and the other's doesn't, though. 

That said, I'd prefer to live next to the neighbor who owns the expensive coin collection rather than one who fashions himself a "good guy" on the suburban frontier and maintains a private arsenal in his home. It just seems to me that there's a substantial risk of accidental or intentional harm (suicide, curious toddlers, domestic violence, etc.) inherent in owning an MR-15 that doesn't exist, say, in owning a 1914 King George VI silver threepence.

[homelycooking]

Silver threepences don't kill people - people kill people.