In response to a "Progressive"

The best thing about this brief missive from the Phoenix Progressive Examiner was the Gun Porn used to illustrate it. Looks like a compact Sig Sauer, not a bad little weapon. Anyway, I was moved to comment, and as I suspected, I was roundly ignored. So, I reproduce those comments below, for the sake of posterity:

You know, my first job out of college had me making courtroom exhibits for the state attorney's office, and one of the cases I helped with was the Moon Smoke Shop/Famous Sam's/Firefighter's Union hall murder spree that happened 10 years ago in Tucson. Let me tell you, they were gruesome. What these men did was utterly inhuman, and they deserve whatever punishment can be dished out in this life, or the next. But you know what else it was? Illegal. Laws aren't magic. They don't stop criminals, but they do stop decent, law abiding citizens from defending themselves. I've seen what that looks like, and it isn't pretty. So I'm 100% with the AZ GOP in support of ending these foolish prohibitions on the fundamental human right of self-defense.

So, the next time you sit down to write some screed about "common sense" gun control, think back to that pamphlet that Thomas Paine penned, Common Sense. If he had to register his printing press and pass a Crown competency test and promise, upon pain of imprisonment and the confiscation of his property, not to print anything that might upset others, or incite violence, or God forbid, foment a REVOLUTION, we'd be as surveilled and taxed and regulated (even our speech! But I guess you would like to ban Michael Savage from this country, too) as all the other subjects of the U.K are today. But there was, at the time, a widespread respect for the fundamental human right of free expression.

It's a shame you people have stolen the word liberal from the real classical liberals who founded this country with the enlightenment values of maximum personal freedom and a minimal state (and ask Lysander Spooner about how far they fell short) in mind. The only thing you're liberal about is the application of government to any problem you see, which is essentially the use of VIOLENT FORCE to make people behave as you wish. The only "progessive" action I see is the continued progress of government intrusion into every aspect of our lives, backed up, as it always is, by men with guns. So, just come out and "cop" to your love of and infatuation with guns (used aggressively, not as we 2A folks would have it, in defense ourselves and loved ones), those of you on the left, because that's clearly your favorite solution to any problem. Point a gun at whoever is acting up and make them do as we say! No wonder you like those Che Guevera t-shirts so much. That was one of his favorite solutions too, but it usually ended with him pulling the trigger.