Reply #24: A few wackos are being held up (falsely) as representing

[hansberrym]

the party. But the fact remains that many of the people denying an individual right of ordinary americans to keep and bear arms have been on the political left. (Gary Wills, Caroline Kennedy, Michael Bellesiles, Michael Dorf, and Dan Abrams to name a few).

The Right has taken advantage of this to discredit reasonable gun control (by employing the slippery slope argument) and Democrats in general(using guilt by association). These are weak arguments if looked at logically, but politics is often decided on gut feelings.

The party platform, stating that the rights of Americans to own firearms would be protected, was an improvement, but I was disappointed that is did not just say in boldface that the party rejects the "Collective Rights" theory.

Gun control and an individual right to keep and bear arms are not mutually exclusive. IMO the slipperly slope argument could be completely undercut if more effort were put into upolding the individual right while stressing also individudal responsibilities.

BTW: Where do you stand on the Collective Right vs. Individual Right
issue?