Name calling makes me look clever

Or something like that.

This is the fifth in my “there are no new pro-gun control arguments” series. You can find #4, along with links to the first three, here. Today’s “argument,” much like #4 is not so much an argument as it is an accusation. It also happens to be one I find particularly amusing, for reasons I’ll get to in just a moment.

This accusation possesses such rhetorical power as to render impotent any attempts to respond or object. It achieves this thru the use of a single word, so imbued with power as to render mute any who would differ. I refer, of course, to the word “ammosexual.”

Mocking people on the basis of their sexuality, real or supposed, is hardly a new thing. It has, I suppose, been around about as long as there have been people. For the gun control advocates who use the term, especially those who identify as progressives, it is a term fraught with danger, as are terms like “gun fondler,” “gun humper” and, of course “gun fetishist.” See, if you are a progressive, or simply a decent human being (the two are not mutually exclusive), you use such terms at your own risk. If the person you’re addressing chooses, even as a debate tactic, to embrace the term, what do you do, then? If that person goes further and says something along the lines of “I was born this way. Don’t judge me” how do  you respond? Oh, you can deny that they are being serious, of course (and perhaps they are not being serious), and that can work. Remember, though, that there are over 325,000,000 people in the US. What is the likelihood that there are at least a few who have some sort of sexual fetish involving guns that does not proceed to the point of causing any sort of psychosocial distress and that has no detrimental effects on their lives? Based upon my experience in psychiatric/mental-health nursing, I’d say the odds are pretty good, though admittedly I haven’t met such a person (that I know of). At this point, the person using one of the terms has a problem. To wit he or she is mocking people on the basis of their sexuality. As a nation, we are moving away from that, at least in general. Should gun owners choose for it to do so, this approach can only hurt the gun control advocate who uses one or more of the terms.

With that in mind, I have chosen this somewhat dated video for inclusion in this post.

***

More seriously, I don’t much care what someone calls me. Attacks on my sexuality, real or imagined, indicate an inability to formulate an intelligent argument. They are 6th grade tactics being utilized in what is supposed to be an adult discussion. If that’s the best a gun control advocate has, he or she doesn’t have much.