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Originally Posted by Quick Karl
Effective communication requires not being stupid, especially when you are confronting a majority that is probably going to vote your rights away...
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First, I don't believe that refusing to surrender even more rights than we have already is stupid.
Second, with regards to "a majority that is probably going to vote your rights away," I have two points to make:
(a) The Bill of Rights is, in many ways, designed to protect the minority against an encroachment on the minority's rights against the majority. For example, the majority of Americans could, through their elected officials, pass a law that prohibits anyone from publicly criticizing the President. Clearly, that would be unconstitutional. The right to free speech is specifically protected in the First Amendment, and political speech is given the highest level of protection available. As I teach my students, "The First Amendment is terribly undemocratic in that regard." By way of comparison, Chicago and Washington D.C.'s laws were held as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, even if their laws were passed as provided by law, by their duly elected leaders.
(b) I'm not entirely convinced that the anti-gunners are "a majority." That faction is very vocal at the moment, but that does not necessarily make them a majority. I do not see any point in accepting failure until the votes are tallied.