When I mentioned that the very first laws governing the sale and ownership of firearms in this country were specifically aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of blacks and Indians, this same person (same ethnicity as me) basically agreed with those policies, saying that the government was wise to do this so they wouldn’t have to constantly battle insurrections and uprisings. I was incredulous, mentioning that if the government wanted to put its thumb on you today, and you had no means to fight back, wouldn’t you want a gun too? He basically waved off my argument, saying that we now live in a “nation governed by laws” where “battles are fought in the courtroom” and not on the streets.

Well – there’s just no arguing with this guy. He’s ensconced in his safe little upper-middle-class existence where he never encounters a genuinely bad person, people who can’t be dealt with by reason and threat of lawsuits, and so that of course colors his judgement. I’m not saying I would like this person to get mugged or burglarized just once, to see the true ugliness that exists in the world, but sometimes it does take a real-life first-hand experience to awaken people to the realities of life.