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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 15, 2024

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Pushing your argument to the extreme means that any politician that isn't pro-social-panopticon deserves to be murdered by the criminals for their soft-on-crime policies.

I mean, as much as people falling out of plains "deserve" to die when they hit the ground. It's less "deserve" and more natural law. You allow more crime, you get more crime, including against the politicians that allowed it.

You allow more crime, you get more crime, including against the politicians that allowed it.

So...is it also true that if you encourage more gun ownership, you get more shootings, including against the politicians that enable it?

Potentially, but I would expect that widespread gun ownership would help dissuade the vast majority of potential muggers (a far more common form of gun violence) while very slightly increasing the risk of political assassinations.

I suspect that there is a very low, static baseline likelihood of a political assassination in a stable society - aka crazy will find a way. Japan has very low gun ownership levels, but that didn’t save Shinzo Abe from being killed with a homemade zip gun.

You allow more guns, you get more gun crimes, including against the politicians that allowed it. If it was practically impossible for private citizens to purchase firearms in the United States, Donald Trump almost certainly wouldn't have almost gotten shot in the head last week.