Disarming Old People.

Recently an article entitled Armed and Aging: Should Older Americans Face Tighter Gun Controls? came over the Facebook transom.

To her credit, the author tries mightily to pretends to be a balanced observer. She even includes a few quotes from older gun owners and some well-known facts about the reality of suicide. However, by the end I realized she simply has no grasp of the principles involved in the gun rights issue. She writes,

State lawmakers in California recently offered a unique solution that could appease both sides: the gun violence restraining order.

The statewide policy, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2016, is based on the domestic violence restraining-order system, in which concerned citizens can turn to the courts for help, said Frattaroli, who serves as associate director for outreach for Johns Hopkins’ Center for Injury Research and Policy.

No one with half a brain still functioning could think the California GVRO is a good idea. It is not just its obvious trampling of due process -- though that is certainly bad enough. The big problem is the enormous potential for abuse by angry, jealous or greedy relatives.

The penalty for a false accusation is a misdemeanor and, five'll get you ten, no false testimony will ever be pursued by a DA. This opens the GVRO to gossip being given force of law. On the victim's side, the penalties are being the subject of a false report of suicidal or homicidal intentions, losing his gun rights for up to a year (extensible to forever if the judge can be convinced he was right the first time) and being disarmed against those who would do him harm.

This from a group claiming it "promotes a positive view of aging."

Edited to fix link

That Moment When I Realize the Facepalm is Inadequate.

I used to think Kevin DeLeon was about as stupid on the subject of firearms as a person could get outside of a home for the mentally retarded. I still think that is true but Weld is definitely a contender to displace DeLeon. I guess it just goes to show that every time I think I've seen the bottom of the Well of Human Stupidity, someone will come along and start digging.

Bill Weld Just Compared AR-15s to “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” & Said Pistols Were Even Worse!

Nationalism

In an article somewhat unfortunately entitled The Enduring Allure of Hitlerism, Ex-Army writes:

When "nationalism" comes up on this blog, some bozo always equates it to Naziism. These bozos are almost always leftists, and are consequently anti-nationalist and anti-Western. Now, the bozos aren't entirely wrong, because they know that nationalism isn't good for their ilk, any more than National Socialism would be. No, globalism is best for the bozos, and they instinctively know it. And while nationalism is not equivalent to National Socialism, the latter of course entails nationalism.

I suppose it is easy for people to look back on the course of German history and interpret almost anything that happened as contributing to the rise of Nazism. However, this leads to all kinds of distortions such as selectively quoting Johann Gottfried von Herder about his ideas on organic nationalism or excerpting the worst of Martin Luther's anti-Semitic screeds. Out of social and historical context, they could support the notion of ingrained German traits of contempt for other nationalities and blind obedience to authority. Herder did believe Christianity should be Germanized but he also preached tolerance for those of other nationalities and believed that other countries should adapt Christianity to their particular needs. Famously, Martin Luther insisted on the right of the individual to rebel against spiritual and intellectual authority. Neither of these contribute to a narrow-minded contempt of others nor to blind obedience to the state.

Ideas do have a power but that power is always subject to social and political circumstances. That reality is often forgotten -- or maybe just ignored -- by those who generalize from fantasies about the German character or mind to essential characteristics of fascism or Nazism.

Those who deride "nationalism" as some kind of fascist/Nazi sine qua non are delusional. The essence of fascism is not nationalism but statism. A national identity and support within the nation for that identity is not dangerous by itself. It is the concentration of power within the state that turns nationalism toxic.