General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Patton Oswalt: What gun owners think they look like... [View all]The Magistrate
(95,243 posts)I have made my view on the matter of what a government in a state of war may do, within the bounds of the laws of war. There is no point to repeating that here. Anyone who knows anything about war knows that non-combatants will be killed in course of it. That is unavoidable, particularly in the case of partisan or guerrilla war, where the people of an area are treated by combatants on one side as a species of cover.
How this should affect the quality of my understanding that in many instances, a person's attraction to firearms, and dedication to possession of firearms, has irrational roots, partaking of fetishism, even sexualized fetishism, is not clear to me. Nor is it clear to me how pointing out that fetishist fantasies are a poor basis for law and public policy regarding implements of deadly force is incongruous with awareness of the actual applications of the laws of war to governments at war.