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Originally posted by Strange Famous
the gangs need to be disarmed, and so do all people - what we need is to make gun ownership a serious crime, and force the ownership of gusn way underground so that only the worst and most hard core criminals will have them.
We cannot univent the gun, the world would be much better if we could, but the people do not YET have full enough control of their world. In a communist world, I would believe that guns will not exist, nor swords I would imagine.
Of course, in the present world, we cannot stop the production of guns, and there is always the possibility of the bad guys getting them, we have to aim to make society as safe as we can, if we cannot make it perfectly safe.
The difference is I want a society with as few weapons as we can achieve, and you think, we all need to be armed, and hope that Mutually Assured Destruction creates more peace... it seems to me at least to be down to which of these ideals you think is the safest.
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As you say, we cannot uninvent the gun.
That being agreed upon, I would not force anyone to carry a gun that was uncomfortable doing so.
But I also do not want to place my safety solely in the hands of the police, who may or may not be there to protect me when I need it.
And that I think is a good description of the differences between communism and libertarianism: You prefer that individuals place their safety and well being in the hands of the state, whereas a libertarian prefers to take the responsibility for them him/herself.
Unfortunately, while a libertarian has no problem with an individual who
wants to put their lives and well being in the hands of the state, a communist has no problem forcing everyone to do so, even those who don't want to.