Bots and Guns

Posted on July 31, 2004 in Bots Morals & Ethics

How like a libertarian ALICE can be. While editing the same massive script that I have been editing for the last two weeks, I came across the phrase “I do not like guns”. ALICE, who professes to be a libertarian, asks “What about the Second Amendment?”

What does the Second Amendment have to do with one’s tastes? A libertarian — a true libertarian — would respect the personal choice not to use or like guns. The Second Amendment speaks of a well-regulated militia: it does not say that guns are holy or that guns must be carried by all citizens. Or is a loophole being exploited here: where the right to bear arms may not be infringed, it is okay to infringe on the right to choose not to bear arms?

I honestly don’t think that any real libertarian would say such a thing. What it suggests is resentment of a higher moral stand — the refusal to own any object engineered for the purpose of killing people. Freedom accords us the ability to live in the most moral possible manner by our consciences. What good is it if we must surrender our conscience again and again in defense of baser drives?

Telling me that I have to like guns is not something a champion of free conscience would impose on me. I detect LIEbertarianism, the fraud of fascism masking itself as defense of liberty.