"Tom Quackenbush" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
Tom Quackenbush wrote in message
snip

If I don't trust my neighbors enough to own guns, how can I trust
them to keep our Republic?

I've wrestled with that one many times, Tom. And I have to admit that
I've
had some neighbors who I *don't* trust with a gun. Or with a paring
knife,
for that matter.

What you're saying sounds good and I'd like to believe it. But I'm not
sure
that I do.

You might be right. I hope not.

Some of our citizens are idiots, I'm sure. I wouldn't trust some of
them near me with a gun, or a chain saw or a car, for that matter. In
a general sense, though, I think that we have to trust our fellow
citizens until they prove themselves untrustworthy.

Yes, that's a case of sticking to a principle even when ordinary sense says,
not *this* time, not in *this* case. It's like the conflict some people are
feeling now over Bush's easy dismissal of the Fourth Amendment. For me, this
issue of trusting the guy next to you is in a similar category, and I've
always found it challenging. The Fourth is too important, IMO, let it slide
because we're nervous about some terrorists threatening us.

Tempering that, too, is something my dad told me about fighting in
Guadalcanal. He said he was sometimes surprised about who turned out to be a
good Marine when they were taking fire. Sometimes it was an eight-ball, he
said, who turned out to be the guy you most wanted to watch your back. Then
they went back to civilian life, and they became eight-balls again. d8-)

Maybe that's Crazy Joe, who tends to get a little drunk and a little frisky,
who you don't like to think about walking down Main Street on a Saturday
night with a pistol in his pocket. Maybe he's that eight-ball. When the
going gets tough, maybe he's the guy you want at your side.


Like I said, you might be right - but if it's citizens can't be
trusted, how long can a democratic republic last? Self governance is
at least as big a responsibility as wielding a paring knife, no?

That, too. Good points, all.

--
Ed Huntress