I wish the phrases "an armed society is a polite society" and "a duelling society is a polite society" would die in a fire. What they are code for is "having groups of people intimidated into silence by fear of violence is a good thing." I was most shocked by someone I certainly thought should have known better trotting out the duelling variant when some arsehole of a Republican bigwig implied - none-too-subtly - that Obama was a liar. Yes, because the code duello in the antebellum South did so much to inhibit racially-motivated insults.
Speaking, of course, as a complete outsider and foriegner, even the official explanation for the Second Amendment seems dotty to me: "We enshrined a constitutional right to bear arms because every Government needs to be kept in check by fear of an armed coup."
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Date: 2012-07-22 09:12 am (UTC)Speaking, of course, as a complete outsider and foriegner, even the official explanation for the Second Amendment seems dotty to me: "We enshrined a constitutional right to bear arms because every Government needs to be kept in check by fear of an armed coup."