Originally Posted by ThatOwlWoman
Excellent question. I would also ask how they think they can somehow fight off the government's tanks, missiles, gases, even nukes with their puny-by-comparison pop guns. Entire well-equipped armies have tried and failed. The idea that having a gun is going to keep the government from doing something nefarious is something only a moron would believe.
They just don't want to admit that the real reason they have guns is because they tremble in fear of their fellow citizens, who in turn fear them." TW #211
Perhaps TW you're mirroring the derisive, flustered, dismissive style of your opposition. Your "tremble in fear" choice of word is almost surely a derisive exaggeration.
There is a counterpoint of course.
"... a tight grip is actually a sign of a weak hand." President William Jefferson Clinton 99/04/07 C-SPAN
I own rainwear. It's not because I "tremble in fear" about water. Water is a useful cleaning / rinsing agent, & a superb refreshing beverage. I bathe in it routinely. That has zero to do with "tremble in fear".
I own rainwear so that if I have an appointment which coincides with rainfall, I don't have to attend the meeting in soaking wet clothing.
Planet Earth is crammed w/ potential perils. Not merely mentally defective humans that may be a danger to themselves or others.
Where I live there are ostensibly domesticated canids (among the most dangerous and persistent perils that confront me here). There are also wild canids, wild cats, bear, & lord knows what else.
And the irrefutable reality about self-defense weapons is:
It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
Is it not the same for a first aid kit? If you own a box of bandaids, is it because you "tremble in fear" at all potential sources of puncture or laceration? If so, how do you manage to navigate your own kitchen, if there's a shish kebab skewer, or paring knife in it?
"A gun is a tool." actor Alan Ladd in the title role of Shane
I'm not sure you sinking to the rhetorical level of children as the gun fanatics so often do will advantage your argument.
Why not try objective truth? Has truth ever been wrong?