434 Comments
May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Yes, this is a good invitation to an important discussion.

I'm New York born and raised. I lived through the bad crime years of the '70s; I had a gun shoved in my side during a failed mugging; I've always been repulsed by guns and had great scorn for all that vast America between the East and West coasts; those people had, I thought, nothing in common with me.

When I lived overseas for 18 months just before and in the aftermath of 9/11, my family were threatened to the extent that we had cops living in our compound, and we turned our storage room into a safe room with the addition of a strong lock on the inside of the door and a long gun that must have been left over from the Afghan Campaign that Kipling wrote about. I hated having that thing there; it was taller than I.

Nine years ago I moved to a NE libertarian state where most people have guns and open carry is legal. Felt like alien territory.

These past two years have schooled me but good. I finally, in the tarnishing of my golden years, understand the remarkable prescience of our Founders. They were horribly flawed in their personal lives but their understanding of human nature in general and the particulars of tyranny and how it succeeds are, I think, unmatched in political discourse of any human era for which we have written histories.

I'm not a particularly brave person and have never handled a gun. But I believe, and always have, from the time I was a kid, that though you may crush me I will go down fighting. I've watched what has happened in the UK, a place I've been visiting since I was 23 years old and where I have beloved friends, and what happened in Australia--a place I thought was as tough or more than the US, and I understand now why those crazy survivalists in their Idaho bunkers that I, to my shame, mocked all my life till now, weren't in the least crazy or at least not in the way I thought.

The gun tragedy in this country is entirely a result of failed families. Freedom is horribly costly. When people have the freedom to raise their children as they see fit, inevitably some of them will terribly harm their children. When you cannot incarcerate everyone who uses drugs, you will inevitably have people who so harm their children beginning in utero that those children will never be normal. When you do not have the right to inspect every household daily, or weekly, or monthly, you will inevitably have families where children endure unspeakable horrors and become full-grown without ever having properly matured.

This is the cost of having inalienable rights. I never understood, before, why this cost must be paid if we are not to become Shanghai right now or ever, or Melbourne, or Birmingham, during the worst of the past two years. There is no authority wiser than we individuals in the aggregate but authority will never be convinced of that and can only be kept in check. It won't happen by conversation but by the knowledge that they can't take all of us down and had better not try.

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May 25, 2022·edited May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

If you look at Emma Woodhouse's charts on twitter, for example: The uptick in gun violence in mid 2020 did NOT have anything to do with a sudden increase in the availablity of guns owned by responsible citizens.

This is a clear a picture as one ever needs to dispense with the idea that gun-control is the solution, or that accessibility to guns was the problem. Both are clearly falsified by these charts. Any good data scientist should see the plain truth of that.

The number of 'average guns per household' has always been high in the US through the decades. In certain cities in Texas, the guns per household ownership rate is very high, and the gun crime per capita is very low. This tells you that gun ownership is not, itself, the core problem.

What changed mid 2020 was Democrat-led city policies, which created the tinderbox conditions that ignited during the riots, and also the subsequent push for "defund the police".

Culturally, the US has experienced a decay in societal norms and values (so have all western societies to some degree) as traditional family structures, a common understanding of moral behavior, and organized religion becomes less prevalent.

Preventing law-abiding citizens from owning guns doesn't address the root of the problem, which isn't the gun. It's the mind. It's some deep disease in the culture.

I'm one of those US citizens who will tell you, with a steel look in my eye, "what part of non-negotiable do you not understand." We will NOT concede this point, EVER. We will die first.

There is a *reason* that the founding fathers of the U.S. placed the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution directly after the 1st. Because it is the "last line of defense" between citizens and tyrannical governments, who have nakedly exposed themselves in the COVID-era. We've all seen now what authoritarianism looks like, and we've had enough of it.

The right to own guns is NOT a concession granted by the state to the citizen. It is an inalienable right BELONGING to the citizen, part and parcel of the right to self determination and self-defense, that may not be interfered with by a government. That which is not granted may not be revoked. European countries have long since inverted this relationship.

All other fundamental rights of free people derive from the right of free speech and the right to self-determination; the US is the last bastion of this kind of "citizen before government" rights structure.

There is a problem to solve, yes. But it isn't the gun. It's the culture. And that's the harder problem to address, because it forces politicians to look in the mirror. It's much easier to blame an implement and sieze it, rather than to admit that your Democratic governance, your perverse cultural norms, your disincentivization of moral behavior, and dystopian ways of viewing the relationship between people and state are at the root of the problem.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

It triggers us. It is guaranteed in the Constitution that I can have one, yet we are CONSTANTLY having our rights eroded. Talking about anything that curtails that right makes a lot of us mad.

To be frank, I interpret the Constitution to mean I should be able to own any weapon that the government does, so we should actually be having the discussion about how to expand our ability to buy larger weapons.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I don't own a gun, but know many who do. We live in a fallen world. The concern I have, especially after reading history and in particular about the French Revolution, is when only the people in power have weapons.

I'm not sure if you heard about the Christmas parade tragedy in Waukesha, but man is capable of evil using any multitude of methods, including his hands. The bottom line is the heart of man and its desperate need for redemption.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

It’s two things - this message about a reasonable conversation is being pushed by either hypocrites or uninformed people. In US, there are over 2 million self defense uses of a firearm, and about 20.000 gun homicides. For every person hurt there are 100 saved, and in the homicide group they included criminals shot by civilians or police.

Rifle firearms are 2% of those homicides (according to FBI), fewer than empty hands and feet murders.

They ignore that “if only saves one life”, at the same time pushing for abortion which always kills one.

Plus, look at EU and Australia to see what an unafraid government can and will do to their population - it used to be treated as conspiracy theory and now we’re seeing concentration camps for potential cases of flu.

And about Britain, didn’t you have a law against sharp knives now that you’re a gun free paradise?

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I'm American, grew up in a rural area where gun ownership and hunting were the norm. I would guess there were guns in pretty much every home in town (this was in the 1970s/80s). There were guns in gunracks in the pickup trucks of kids at my high school. Yet in the entire 18 years of my childhood before I moved away, there was only one incidence of gun violence and I remember it because it was so rare and people often talked about "The Shooting" as it was referred to (a husband shot his wife's lover). But we also had a close-knit community where children were seen and supported. I'm not sure what's changed in modern-day America, but it's not gun ownership.

To answer your larger question, I'd say that it's defensiveness that triggers the anger. If you say you support gun rights or the second amendment, you can be called a murderer or worse by the left. They literally blame you for children dying. That's a horrific thing to say to someone and it's really hard not to feel angry. I will get up and leave before entering into a conversation on gun rights with anyone in my liberal-leaning community -- it's not worth being called names. They NEVER want to actually hear my perspective. They just want to tell me I'm wrong -- not just plain wrong, but EVIL and wrong.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Why does gun control need to be discussed at all? It is a natural law that you have the right to defend yourself. Our 2nd Amendment to the Constitution says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Period. Full stop. Some people will kill using any tool available: cars, rocks, knives, fists. But no one is calling for car control or knife control. Why not? Because our government knows they have to disarm the population to enact their tyranny. Covid showed their totalitarian tendencies but they want full control hence the call for gun control every time there is a shooting. We look at the UK and Australia and see how well gun control worked there. No thanks. Australia got away with their abuse because they knew people could not fight back.

There are other things that can be done to harden schools/buildings against this sort of shooting. But the politicians are not interested in those solutions. Schools in urban areas have metal detectors and armed officers which is why these events happen at suburban schools. Then there are those individuals who refuse to have an armed officer in schools. The people who

Commit these atrocities are looking for easy targets. We need to solve the problems at the schools and make it harder for crazy people to do their damage. Locked doors are an easy fix. You go through one door and the second is locked. Now they are trapped. And law enforcement can be called. There are other measures that are not expensive but politicians don’t bother with that. My final thought. As a woman, a hand gun is the great equalizer. If someone tries to attack me I can’t physically compete but my hand gun can and will. Cheers.

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Thanks for starting a civil discussion about this topic and being open-minded enough to listen.

The argument is so simple and clear, I’m surprised anyone disputes it. To draw from a comment I made at the el gato thread that sparked this discussion:

Gun laws don’t stop criminals from getting guns. Gun laws don’t stop murders from occurring.

All they do is stop law-abiding citizens from having the ability to defend themselves against criminals, tyranny, and genocide.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Imagine you’re having an argument with your spouse. You’re trying to explain your side calmly and rationally. Your spouse does not seem to be listening to what you’re saying, does not address any of your points, and keeps saying the same thing over and over. You try to address what they say; they ignore it and continue to repeat the same thing. Are you eventually going to get fed up? Maybe even angry?

This is why people are angry about this discussion. They’re fed up of the other side not listening.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I don't have a gun and think that having one comes with responsibilities. However, I totally support 2nd amendment rights. I don't know how to put it into words, but "Awaken with JP" had a great video -- done with humor -- about the right to bear arms. Unfortunately, I am having trouble finding it now to place a link here... I think that having a gun isn't just about protecting your family and home, but also about protecting yourself from a tyrannical government. I never really thought that the US Gov't would become tyrannical until the past couple of years! I respect and appreciate responsible gun owners.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

One of the biggest arguments against individual gun ownership is the massive militarization of our police in tandem with growing corruption of our political system. I'm in NYC where handguns are outlawed but NYPD would be the worlds 7th largest military force if we were to rank by spending and they have offices around the globe. Spend any time at the wrong protest event and it feels like an occupying force not public servants protecting my free speech.

As a country kid we all had BB-guns and knew folks who hunted so only automatic weapons have ever been objectionable to me until now despite being traditional anti-war pacifist lefty.

Since COVID my government has no respect for my fundamental human rights or bodily autonomy and the fact that our Red States are armed to the teeth gives me a very comforting sense that they stand between freedom and locked down like Australia or NZ or China.

Pfizer has killed and maimed more people than all our mentally unstable attackers combined. Instead of funding a bloodbath in Ukraine and endless billions for clot-shots we might invest in mental health, drug and homeless services and stop shipping tanks to our local cops. When your government is the greatest purveyor of violence and continue to declare citizens terrorists giving up our guns seems badly timed.

Oct 16, 2014 — The Pentagon has provided at least $28 million worth of equipment to 128 police departments and sheriff's offices across NY State..

2021 ACLU -

The federal government arms local police forces in the United States with weapons of war. A program called “1033,” for the section of the act that created it, allows the Department of Defense to give state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies military hardware. Since its inception in 1996, nearly 10,000 jurisdictions have received more than $7 billion of equipment. This includes combat vehicles, rifles, military helmets, and misleadingly named “non-” or less-lethal weapons, some of which have featured in police raids and police violence against protesters, including recent protests for racial justice.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210512154701/https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/federal-militarization-of-law-enforcement-must-end/

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

After reading both your post and the comments, I see that it isn't the pro/anti-gun discussion you're interested in, but in the emotion surrounding it.

You ask why some people can't civilly discuss the issue, and to that my only answer is, "I don't know." Some (many?) people are immature thinkers and cannot formulate a cogent argument, therefor they lead with emotion. Emotion runs high on this issue because it is one of both personal safety and our rights as Americans.

On the personal safety front - I have spent my life back and forth between the UK and the US, as well as traveling extensively around the world since I was a young child. I understand that people outside the US often see news of a mass shooting here and immediately go to "they should ban guns." The thing is, most of us here who support gun ownership do so because we notice that the places that have these mass shootings are, by and large, "gun free" zones. Criminals do not follow laws. Criminals will not trade all their guns to the government for a few hundred dollars. Criminals will actively seek to predate the weak and defenseless. If we give up our guns, we are all the weak and the defenseless to the criminals who have not given up theirs.

As far as our rights as Americans - maybe you have heard the old adage that the Second Amendment (right to bear arms) is there is back up the First Amendment (right to freedom of speech and expression). This is true, but it does not end there, it also backs up our other rights and keeps the federal government in check. You may have noticed, for example, that we did not have the quarantine camps here that were prevalent in Australia and China; the second amendment is a part of the reason why. We did not have police (even in my deep blue state that was the last to lift its mask mandate) hauling people off because they weren't contact tracing, or because they were more than 10 miles from home, or because they were on the beach without a mask; the second amendment is part of the reason why. Our government treads carefully because many of us still take the Gadsden flag seriously.

Every so often we let down our guard, but then institutions like the WHO and the WEF rear their heads and start talking down to us about globalism, elitism, and the collective good (which sounds like a bad deal for anyone who isn't them), and we once again thank our Founding Fathers for their prescience and wisdom in giving us the gift of self-defense and checks on power.

So, the reason people are so emotional when it comes to the Second Amendment? Because without it we would likely already have lost our republic, and we love it too much to give it up without a fight.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

"... I would prefer that every other hungry, angry, raiding person didn’t have a gun." I understand this is your Substack and I enjoy your articles, it's just hard to want to have a conversation with someone who wants to impose their way of life onto yours so they can feel comfortable or safe or whatever. If other people not owning or using a gun makes one group of people feel safe, how different is that from the current paradigm of wanting to force medical procedures on others for safety, etc?

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Hello N.E. I am an American and I think it is ridiculous that people will not discuss the topic with you or anyone else. However, I do not agree with your gun control views, but I expect you to have those views given that you are from the UK and were not brought up around guns. I was brought up with guns in the household and I have carried one for a quarter century, so I do not look at it the same way that you do. I have to run right now, but I will comment more a bit later when I have more time. Thanks for your excellent work!

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Leaving aside the fact that it's a constitutional right, and those are precious, and that in a country irretrievably full of illegal guns it's not a bad idea to have some legal ones, I'm amazed you ask.

I'm English but I suggest that armed US civilians are maybes the only thing actually stopping the new world order from actually taking over pretty much immediately.

Biden (like arguably every US president since Reagan, and a few before) is constrained by one thing, and that is the knowledge that if he pokes the US people a little too hard, and too obviously, it could end up bad for a lot of the people he sends to do the poking, and by extension for him, his crackhead son, and the rest of America's ruling elite.

Let's not kid ourselves that the US government or any others really care about the loss of life, especially given the shit they've pulled on us all on five continents over the last two years.

Let's not kid ourselves that doctors care, either, given that medical negligence is the third biggest killer in the US, killing (Johns Hopkins figures, 2018 ie PRE Covid) 250,000 to 440,000 people per year.

As for the media, please don't make me laugh.

Shit is about to get properly real and I for one am glad that there are a lot of weapons in the hands of ordinary Yanks.

Let's go Brandon.

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Um, Americans decided in 1776 that they didn't want to be like Britain anymore. Next question.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

My 56 year-old American perspective...1) The criminals are heavily armed and are not going to turn in or give up their guns (and even if they did, plenty more would just stream across our Southern border.) Law-abiding people deserve to be able to protect themselves in all situations. Rifles don't work in many settings. 2) Taking away guns does nothing to help mental health issues and the overprescription of psychotropic meds for kids, but it does stop me from being able to protect my family from a nut bent on hurting us. 3) Our founding Fathers put the 2nd amendment in place to allow the citizens to protect themselves from a tyrannical government. They were brilliant men with amazing foresight. Never have we needed that capability more than we do now. 4) Unlike the UK, the United States has really vast expanses of wilderness across the country in which many could see refuge in a dystopian situation. Being able to hunt and protect yourself from others is critical. We do not intend to go gently into that bad night. 5) Guns have been readily available in the United States since its founding, but crazy people shooting up schools is a fairly recent occurrence. Guns did not cause the problem. 6) Using the occurrence of a school shooting to insist that guns are taken away from everyone is no different from taking one legitimate covid death as a reason to mandate vaccines for everyone. It's a massive government overreach that does nothing to address the true issue of damaged kids and mental illness. 7) And on a personal note, crazy people who want to kill someone will - I'd much rather be shot than hacked to death with a machete any day.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

This Canadian likes to shoot, a lot. I play shooting games, look up IPSC. We don’t take cars away from everyone when drunks get behind the wheel do we?

Besides crazies will take to driving vehicles into busy Christmas parades or on sidewalks during sunny afternoons on Toronto’s busiest street (simply cuz he couldn’t get laid).

We don’t treat mental illness at all in North America. For instance we care more about peoples right to live on the street in sub zero weather than locking them up against their will (and treating them).

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

We have gun control in France. Yet, it hasn’t stopped 2 mass shootings where the crazies were roaming the street without any possibility for anyone to do anything about it. The USA has 350millions odd people yet you will remove a fundamental right based on the action of a few crazies?! How is that any different from the Covid fascists?! You take the uk as an example as if before dunblane it was a country where mass shootings happened on a regular basis. It most certainly didn’t so your point is moot that the gun controls that were introduced had any effect whatsoever. When it comes down to it, you are just as influenced by the media when it suits your prejudices as anyone, principles be damned.

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May 26, 2022·edited May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

So I see a few comments but I'll add my own perspective. I grew up thinking guns were bad and that there was no need for it. If we have no guns, then we'd have no violence.

But as I started getting older my perspective changed and I started looking at things in a more nuanced manner. I watched a few documentaries (which I admit will be biased) that kind of changed how I approach guns, and led me to sort of change my idea that we should ban all guns. This went on for a few years but it didn't change much to be honest.

And then the pandemic hit. I mentioned it in one place but I come from an Asian background and many Asians are adamantly against guns. Then when many Asians believed that they would be targeted for being Asian they tried getting a firearm and couldn't get through (long wait, overcrowded, low supply, etc. etc.)

But that solidified it for me. How can people scoff at those who want to own firearms only to rush and try to obtain them when the time felt necessary? You don't own a firearm for the times when you want/need it, you own a firearm with the idea that you will never have to use it (for self-defense at least).

So that really just altered my perspective. We're dealing with a lot of mental health issues in this country. We're dealing with many people who feel the need to take their anger and resentment out on others. They're being told that the world sucks and there's no reason to believe you can live a fruitful life. Honestly, look at many of the Substacks around here talking about the end of the world being near or that we should all be scared- do we really believe this supports a nation of healthy-minded individuals?

Our society is a recursive one that rewards and enforced negativity, and when it manifests in a horrendous tragedy we walk around asking "how could this have happened?"

So the issue is not guns, it's the manifestation of anger, resentment, and hate that projects itself through harming others. We can't remove the avenues of harm when the intent to harm remains. We need to figure out how to create a more healthy society before we remove things that are otherwise entrenched within our Constitution.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

So, why the anger over a discussion which is purely intended to try to stop kids getting shot at school?

Because the discussion isn't purely intended to try to stop kids getting shot at school, kids getting shot at school is just a convenient pretext to further the goal of disarming citizens and removing the 2a protection of an inherent right.

If the discussion was intended to stop kids getting shot at school, it wouldn't focus on the gun at all, if the guns were the problem it would be a common occurrence. The left runs straight to "take the guns" at every chance, I'm not sure I've ever seen them run to "let's work on the moral fabric of our society", quite the opposite actually.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

One thought is that responsible gun owners, who have existed in this country for a couple hundred years, are not the problem. There is a law that you shouldn’t murder people. That doesn’t stop people from being murdered. A person can drive a car into a group of kids. A person can go on a stabbing rampage. Do you outlaw cars and knives? How about we start with paying better attention to whether people buying guns have been a “problem” to law enforcement in their past? How about we start enforcing laws already on the books which could prevent people who shouldn’t be buying weapons from obtaining them? Why should law-abiding citizens lose their rights because of mentally ill people? How about we look at how drugs that transgender people are taking to make their transition might trigger side-effects such as a propensity to homicide? As well as other drugs we are pumping into young people today in an effort to “treat” mental issues.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

The right to bear arms is a God given right that our Government was established to protect, so that right is enshrined in our Constitution. I would die to protect that right.

You don't understand because you aren't part of the heritage that had to fight for independence. I think thats why the Aussies, who are otherwise freedom minded, rolled over so quick on guns. Americans also have a more robust sense of free speech than you Europeans who are willing to allow "hate speech" laws to hamper expression. Not unfollowing.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Our Constitution doesn't bestow unto us the right to bear arms, it merely recognizes our God-given right to do so. "...shall not be infringed" seems fairly clear to me.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Yes I'm American, and yes, it is a very complicated topic. but the short, uncomplicated, answer for me (NOT personally a gun enthusiast), is very simple. Banning, or otherwise attempting to "ban" anything, simply does not work. When you begin to seriously consider preventing individuals who have never done anything illegal, criminal, etc. (like some, not all, terrorists, mentally ill, disillusioned, and rejected people), it is a slippery slop, a Pandora's box, when you disarm an entire nation (and everyone KNOWS there is no TOTAL disarming of course), the eventual outcome will not be desirable, enslavement is always the final outcome. Obviously, the vision and wisdom of the founders of this nation were indeed a true gift, perhaps for those of us who do believe there is God, that gift was from God. HOW people choose to USE guns, or knives, or auto jacks or crow bars, was not the divine plan. Perhaps acceptance, kindness, a willingness on the part of younger people especially, to accept other students, students with big ears, or small eyes, students who stutter, or lisp, or who can not run as fast or as far as others, perhaps, if we did not look for IMPERFECTIONS in others, it would not prevent all tragedy, but, in many ways we make and shape "imperfect people", while they are still young. From my youth, I remember the boy who, while a toddler raised in a very undesirable family situation (2 alcoholics), got under the sink cupboard and ate lye. His disfigured face, tongue, teeth, and mouth were surely a more horrifying school life than the actual pain of the event itself. I, like all the other grade school children, "kept our distance" from him. He never went on to high school, and while he never became a killer, his criminal record has kept him incarcerated most of his adult life, with only a few months of freedom here and there. Does that make me a "bleeding heart" ? I think not, my point is NOT that he should not pay for his crimes, my point is, perhaps the incidence of violent mass shootings "could" be significantly at least reduced, if individuals who are saddled with physical and mental imperfections, were at least treated with kindness. A "no bullying on this campus" crusade is NOT effective, HOW we view and treat others MUST begin in the home, before school age, and be taught by example. We could (and did) "ban" alcohol, we definitely did NOT succeed in stopping alcoholism, abuse, etc. No, it's not "guns", our fore fathers were correct !

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I just turned 66 years old. When I was a kid, my grandfather gave me a couple 22 cal guns and told me "don't ever tell the government you have these." I still haven't. My grandfather was no redneck nut - he was a Stanford grad and took over a good business from his father and made it a lot more successful. I was a high school science teacher and now am doing real estate successfully. I live in S California. I'm not a dumb redneck either.

We Americans don't want to give up our guns because we don't want to be slaves. Look at Australia. My cousin's wife is British and has the same attitude you express here about guns. I really have to admit I don't get it.

The current world actions of the covid planscamdemic and the move towards digital (not)currency and the Great Reset are a move by the world level tyrants to turn us back into serfs.

The bad guys, including the government bad guys, will always have guns.

I'd rather be able to protect myself.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

“Yes the UK still has gun crime but it’s low. Firearm death rate per 100k in the UK is 0.23, in the US its 12.21.”

If you factor out suicide and gang violence, firearms death rate in the US is very low as well.

We can’t prevent people from simply sauntering over the southern border. They ignore immigration laws, so it’s illogical to think they would obey gun laws.

Concealed carry permit holders commit almost zero crime of any sort, yet stop a lot of it.

If you take the guns away from the good people, then only the bad people will have the guns that the Mexican cartels will have no problem bringing over the borders in massive quantities, just as they do drugs and sex slaves.

I will be convinced that “banning guns” will work when banning drugs and sex slaves works.

Not knowing the problem always makes the solution seem obvious.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I’m in Australia but closely follow US and UK politics. I used to be very big on gun control but the last couple of years of Covid insanity, censorship, and massive government overreach has made me wary of disarming the populace. I even thought about buying a gun! I don’t know what to think now about US school shootings. I’ve found other articles which link the school shooters to heavy drug use and social isolation very compelling.

A prerequisite to enacting effective gun control is that you need people to trust their government. Given we are now at a time when trust in government is at its lowest and continuing to decline I don’t think much can be done.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

The people in power benefit from the tribes screaming at each other. We’re trained to yell about it. Proof is in the choice of language and framing among the talking heads. Hope that answers the question.

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Why measure deaths per 100k in population? If guns are the problem, as you suggest, we should look at gun deaths per 100,000 guns. According to Google, there are 390 million guns in the US, with a population of 330M, and 600k guns in the UK with a population of 55M. Using your .23 number means there were 126 firearm deaths in the UK, or 1 death for every 4743 firearms. Here in the USA, (and again using your numbers) there were 40k firearm deaths. Dividing the 390 million guns in the USA by the 40k deaths yields 1 death for every 9750 guns. In other words, the more accessible guns are, the lower the death rate.

This matches what you see just here in the US. In cities where gun ownership is severely restricted... like Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, Wash DC and New York - Crime is a much bigger problem than in places where guns are easier to get like Dallas, Denver, OK city, or Phoenix. Guns are not the problem and do not deserve the blame, the people pulling the trigger are the problem, they deserve the blame.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I have a PS followup to my previous post: If the USA could send $40 billion in aid to a foreign country in the blink of an eye, why couldn’t the government spend 40 billion to secure our schools and increase access to mental health services? As opposed to taking away the rights of its law abiding citizens?

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Because this is a settled argument in the USA. The left side has lost. So they have to resort to screetching as they are powerless. Change the second amendment if you want change, and good luck with that. The law is on the side of gun owners. There is nothing that left can do.

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May 26, 2022·edited May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Thanks for the invitation for open discourse. It's very much needed, in many areas that are polarised.

I don't have much to add from personal experience. I never owned or wanted a gun. Thought about it during a recent terror attack near my home (I live in Israel). But it's hard to get a license here if you don't work for security forces, so I'll continue to take my chances without one.

Looking at the world though, I don't think it would do much to reduce tragedy. Yes, it would probably reduce the number of dead in school shootings and maybe other mass shootings. That is one clear advantage. But I think it wouldn't much change other types of violence where most people get murdered. People who live a criminal life mostly use illegal guns anyway. And they can murder with other weapons, as you are seeing very well in the UK.

There is one big problem with banning guns and other weapons of self defence (in the UK you'll probably start banning sticks and stones soon!). It sounds silly to state it, but here it is:

People who want to commit crimes don't care that it's illegal, they will get it and use it anyway, BECAUSE THEY CHOSE TO BE CRIMINALS. They haven't stopped robbing, raping and murdering because those things are illegal, right?

Meanwhile, people who are law abiding are left with no legal right to carry a weapon to defend themselves against armed criminals, which basically means the law is giving criminals an extra advantage.

Beyond the crime issue, it's hard not to notice governments and NGO's don't want private citizens to own guns. They claim that's because they want less people murdered, but com'on man... They don't really care about that. It's clear to my mind they just want a monopoly on power. With no legal guns for citizens, the only people who will have guns are security forces loyal to the state, private security paid by the rich, and gangs. That's a good enough reason to support the right to carry in my mind.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

So I’m an anomaly.. Always voted left. Family on Obamas campaign etc.. Had a gun as a kid but haven’t in 30yrs.. As of 2020 I’ll never vote blue again, bought 6 guns including 3 AR’s, 2 handguns and a shotgun including 5000 rounds.. I keep all in a big safe only I (locally) know the combo for..

The left has increased crime through the roof and gone off the deep end. If you’re black you get away with anything now. Rob houses etc and it’s the white home owner who goes to jail when the black guy broke into your house trying to rob you. BLM and the Dems money and racist tactics have gone so far including pushing new world order, vaccine pushes seem never ending.

Not gonna be caught unarmed when there’s a food shortage(diaper shortage) and 10 people crash my house for my materials. My son and I will take at least 5 before we go down..

My excuse is the environment today. Simple..

School shootings don’t make sense to me. They’re crazies. Way more bad people who could use a bullet than a kid.. Those are nut jobs. I’m shocked there’s not more honestly becaus there are far more crazies out there than schools.. Bad guys will always have guns so the good guys have to as well.

As my grandfathers bumper sticker said.. :”When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.” Truth..

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Something else to add: "assault weapons". Is everyone who has commented here, and mentioned "assault weapons", aware that the ONLY difference between an AR-15 and your basic hunting rifle is COSMETIC??? They both work the same!!! In other words, "assault weapons" are "semiautomatic".... which means ONE shot per trigger pull. Semiautomatic is NOT a machine gun. The AR platforms *look* scary, all black and polymer with lots of accessories and doo-dads... but it's the same thing as putting bumper stickers and curb feelers on the family sedan. It's all cosmetic, nothing to do with how it works/fires.

Please, for the love of G-d, try researching something before vilification. Look up what a Class 3 Special Occupational Tax is, and then look up how a semi-auto action actually functions.

The much-discussed Assault weapons ban of 1994 banned COSMETIC features. Literally a set of grips or a pistol grip would determine if a given gun was "ok" or banned. Utter stupidity. Like banning a car based upon its colour, or how much chrome gee-gaws it had. Or how big the fuel tank was (by which I mean banning larger capacity magazines).

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I was surprised to see such vehemence in response to your comments (on other articles) today, but I'm a relative newcomer to the concept that the right to bear arms is a fundamental one.

All the things that you research and write about - at heart none of it matters unless some entities (governments, or governments working on behalf of corporate interests) can coerce us because they have the guns/military complex to make people submit. Most of the pandemic coercion has been much more subtle - social pressure, co-option of "science". etc - but I think that we're all well aware that when push comes to shove, those who control the weapons can make us do anything.

Here's something interesting - I live in a major US city on the northeast corridor. When my friend went to a gun safety and shooting class in town, he was surprised to see that it was overwhelmingly Black women who were taking classes. It's possible that they - like people in rural America - are aware that they cannot count on police to come to their aid (in time, or at all) and feel that the safest thing is to take matters into their own hands.

Thank you for this open letter today! we should be able to talk about this, and though I'm a recent 2nd Amendment convert, I do think that all options should at least be on the table for calm discussion when we're faced with yet another school shooting.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I wish I could understand why we need to sell an AR 15 to an 18 year old who has a history of emotional problems. Is there not a way to keep guns out of the hands of people who clearly should NOT have them? Believe me I don’t want the government taking guns away from law abiding citizens who pay their taxes and work hard and deserve the right to bear arms. Why cant we at least discuss how to make sure a kid who is disturbed can’t just walk in a place and buy one. Maybe it’s not possible to set up safe guards like that. I don’t know. Don’t know if it will even work cause like many have already said on here. If a person wants to kill he will find a way.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

There was a recent discussion on the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast with Peter McCormack (a Brit) and Cody Wilson (American). They discussed US vs. English views/culture on the matter. One of the conclusions is that each country is where it needs to be, culturally.

https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/free-speech-printed-guns

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May 26, 2022·edited May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I'm not American but have spent a lot of time in the US and have many American friends, so I feel I understand the thinking better than most non-Americans.

The Second Amendment was put in place deliberately for very good reasons - that citizens should be able to defend themselves against both criminals and tyrannical Government. In the US this was, of course, a response to the British tyrannical rule and firmly establsihed that the principle that American citizens would never agin become slaves to Government. Britons more than anyone should understand this as encapsulated in "Britons never will be slaves - Rule Brittania" but the issue is, if push came to shove, what would Britons actually be able to do about it other than sing!!

Should guns be banned for law abiding citizens, both these groups would then have a monolopy on violence and tyranny would be free to flourish unchecked. The US founding fathers were not stupid and crafted one (two if you include The Bill of Rights) of the greatest documents ever created by humanity. These people deeply considered every aspect of these documents before commiting them to writing and the Second Amendment is also deeply considered as part of the overall doctrine of "checks and balances"

The Constitution, in totality, resulted in far less tyrannical overrech in the US response to C-19 compared to most othet western "Liberal democracies" (Australia, New Zealand and Austria particularly come to mind) and the Constitution must be understood in its totality.

Given this recent demonstration of totalitarianism by "Liberal" Governments, I would have thought that this point was more than amply demonstrated and I'm very surprised that the author would adopt such a position having been deeply opposed to the totalitarian Government responses globally. Next time, these responses might go even further and entirely destroy ALL civil liberties and human rights.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I suspect the vehemence is for the same reason as the polarising debate on lockdowns and mandatory vaccination... The encroachment on freedom. My bugbear is always being treated like a child because others behave irresponsibly with their freedom. Address them and punish them; don't punish me (everyone) because you are to afraid to call out their folly.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I think a common sense discussion of potentially further regulations on long rifles like AR 15’s. AK 47’s (not hunting rifles) might be a good place to start. However, the founding fathers of the Constitution of the United States had a great debate (documented in the Federalist Papers) regarding the right to bear arms under the second amendment of the Constitution. The right to own a firearm was for the purpose of hunting and self protection. Furthermore, the right to bear arms was also to ensure that we the people could stand up against an enemy foreign or domestic which included standing up against an oppressive and tyrannical government to ensure our freedom. During the Plandemic, I have seen what has taken place in Australia (I’m sure many Australians regret giving up their firearms in 1996) Canada, and many other countries that quite frankly are not much different than China. Just saying….

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I don't think that it's discussing the issue that provokes anger. It's the unwillingness of some on the opposites sides of this issue to listen to the other side that is often misrepresented. For many years of my life, I did not feel the need to own a gun.

For one, I did not need to hunt to provide food for my family and to me that was the only reason to hunt. To me it was never a sport or a challenge to kill an innocent animal. I have always had money to buy my food.

That being said, there are many who do rely on hunting, even in today's world to put food on the table. Should that be denied? And as time has gone on and in this world I now see that one should have that option. If need be, I would still want to provide for my family and hunting is one source to do so. To hunt you need a rifle or perhaps a shotgun, a handgun is useless for that purpose, And in reality an AR, which contrary to what some believe does not stand for "automatic rife". It is just a normal rifle with the capacity to hold more ammo. The "AR" in AR-15 stands for "ArmaLite Rifle", not "assault rifle".

Also, through the years with the rise in crime in many of the large cities in the US, where many gang members have "illegally aquired weapons, many citizens feel that they need some form of protection and can you blame them? There is simply not enough police to cover every area in a given city or town. 911 may not save your life. The last thing I would want is to hear someone in my house and not be able to have the means to protect my family. Why should that right be denied, and yes, in the US, it is still a right. So there again, I think this is justifiable to own a weapon.

I realize this is a no-win situation for anyone., It tears my heart when some nut-case preys on innocent people and unfortunately, many of these idiots target schools because they realize they are a no-gun zones, so these children are unprotected. Would stricter gun laws help? That's debatable, a killer always find a way to kill whether it be a gun, knife, or whatever. No-gun zones are a form of stricter laws. Does it help?

Finally, and I know it's an over used cliche, but it is true. Is that when guns are taken away from the people, those in charge can do what ever they want, and one only has to ask themselves: compare the police of today with those of of 50 years ago. We have gone from the friendly officer on the street to the tactical swat teams today armed with their "assault weapons" if that's the term you like to use. Why is that you just might want to ask yourself!!!

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May 26, 2022·edited May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

To be fair, others have made my points already. But I wish to add my voice, if for no other reason than to have a chorus rather than a solo. You ask, NE, why is this "debate" not civil???? Well, my first point would be that it is difficult for we Americans to be civil when someone starts talking about taking one of our G-d given NATURAL rights away. When a liberal who in one breath is talking about requiring ID to vote being racist and voter suppression, in the next breath wants all kinds of laws and limits slapped on my natural right to own whatever weaponry I choose and not ask mother-may-i to a soul... yeah, that can be why we get a little irritated. Try this thought game first: when wanting limits on my Right to Keep and Bear Arms, strike out "guns" and insert "speech", or "voting", or any of the other Rights enshrined in that lovely Constitution of ours. If a Right can be limited by Government fiat, it's not a Right but a privilege. I call Bullshit at that point.

Next, since I'm sure it will come up: "why do you need a semiautomatic weapon"? For the 10 gazillion-th time, a "semiautomatic weapon" fires ONE round per trigger pull. It works EXACTLY the same in practical terms as a Double-action revolver. (A single-action revolver requires an additional step, that of a hammer cocking before firing.) Literally 95% of ALL available guns today, whether rifles or handguns, work this way. Some shotguns do as well. The problem here is that people who have gotten their ENTIRE knowledge of how guns work from Hollywood or the media have confused or conflated "semiautomatic" with "FULL automatic (i.e. machine guns).

In Most states, machine guns actually are still legal. They are collector's items and hideously expensive and terribly regulated. If memory serves since 1934 when the National Firearms Act was enacted, there has only been one crime committed by a legally possessed machine gun and that was committed by a cop with his personally-owned machine gun. And as far as the question why does someone need a machine gun? Why does Jeff Bezos need a multimillion-dollar yacht? Why does my neighbor need a nice boat? Why do I need more than one motorcycle? The answer is because each of us want that and are able to pay for it. None of anybody's business what I own or you own.

This whole thing about save the children and get rid of guns just pisses me off. Nobody was screaming to get rid of SUVs when the moron drove through the parade in Waukesha. A lot more people are killed every year by driving accidents and drunk drivers then are killed by guns.... yet no one seems to be proposing to have a background check on SUV owners. Or, prophylactically, to have an alco-sensor in every car because some people chose to drive drunk. We don't punish ALL just because of the actions of a very few... even the horrific actions.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I'm not sure why people get angry when talking about the right, or privilege, to have a gun. I didn't agree with or understand this right until about 7 years ago, when I recognized my government does not represent the population any longer. I switched to supporting private gun ownership. It's the last bastion of individual rights in any country. Yes if the military came out full force, the people would not be able to withstand that with guns. But private ownership of guns keeps it from getting to that point. Overtaking a population physically is less of a choice, there is less chance that governments think it's even a possibility. The price we pay for this level of freedom, collective freedom of our population to be physically overrun, is the mass shooting of innocent people. It's a steep price, and a heartbreaking, heart-wrenching one.

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Lot harder for a government to go completely despotic with an armed citizenry. The issue is people not guns...

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May 26, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Great discussion! Thanks for writing the piece. I could tell it was a sincere desire to have an open conversation.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

I think the threat of helplessness is overwhelming to us at the thought of being gun less.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

The typical American psyche is right out of Orwell's "double-think" concept where you can hold two completely contradicting beliefs or thoughts at the same time. We American's "think of ourselves" as peaceful and law abiding even while our government (the one we fund with our taxes) is in the act of murdering, slaughtering and starving the poor around the globe each day, every day, decade after decade as they have been doing throughout my 70 year lifetime. Our societal "norm" is that our government is completely lawless and uses violence to "get its way." The government's justification for this lawlessness is the pathologically self-absorbed belief that "we are the exceptional nation." Perhaps it is that nationally embraced narcissistic conceit that some deranged individual Americans end up mirroring when they decide that "they are the exceptional person" who has the right to kill others because their "feelings" or "beliefs" render them so very "exceptional" and above human life and the law. Just like our government. As a well traveled retired therapist I will say that if there is a people on planet earth that as a group are "less reflective" and more "self-absorbed" than we Americans - I have yet to meet them.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Lastly, there is a war in Europe which could have easily been avoided, where the us government is sending billions worth of weapons which will kill 1000s, with a substantial proportion that will end up in the wrong hands, and where the same us government is not even interested in talking peace thereby prolonging the deaths and destruction on a country level. Seems to me that however incredibly sad the event in that school is, the sense of outrage is a tad unbalanced.

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May 25, 2022Liked by NE - nakedemperor.substack.com

Man, this is sad and hilarious. It's sad that you haven't learned what's actually happening in the world even as its been thrown in your face for years. You are not trying to prevent kids from getting shot, you're supporting the disarming of a nation by an illegitimate communist government while repeating the slogan that you're trying to save kids. Do you ever think about how the authorities always know about these shooters? You think that's a random, unsolvable problem?

You know there are concentration camps in China right now, right? "Quarantine camps" in Australia? Plans for quarantine camps going through legislatures in America? That's the government you want to see disarming the people?

Of course, you think all of this is a conspiracy theory and rather than addressing the reality, you'll pretend it doesn't exist. Remember vaccines? It's just like that. Since you deny the observable reality in front of you, you disregard why the second amendment was written. We have an illegitimate president implementing a global agenda he can't even rationally consider, much less explain, and you think disarming the citizenry is a proper response to a school shooting? Where is that motivation every weekend in Chicago? In fact, why is the most restricted Democrat Communist enclave in the country a battlefield in the first place?

You are repeating what you heard on television but trying to sound like you're the nice, rational guy. There's no discussion to be had. The people will not disarm, particularly not after watching the government assume power in a 5-year long coup culminating in a stolen election, while they censor us and call us domestic terrorists.

Your post is a result of being in the censored leftist bubble on Twitter. The ignorance is shameful at this point.

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