RE: The stupid Eric Howe quote
You know if I were to ever stand in front of a classroom without lots of solid documented evidence that proved every mathematical operation I was performing was true, I couldn't live with myself for spreading such drivel.
If nothing else, in the absence of such hard objective proof that the ban had a "good" or "bad" per se, one must carefully examine that the initial logic behind it is flawed. The very idea... it makes my brain hurt.
Mathematicians are real jerks. They side with the logical argument and the objective evidence every time.
The idea that one can forward an agenda on a supposition, proposition, instinct, or feeling is a dangerous one.
In the first place, registering, regulating, stamping, inspecting, etc. private arms is simply a waste of tax money. There's no part of the Constituition that states that something like the BATF should even exist. Trouble is though, appeal to irrational emotions is how things get done in politics.
I debated a liberal "friend" once and mentioned that many groups against our rights use charged names and loaded language and irrational emotional appeals to push their agenda, while 2nd amendment supporters use anecdotes, rational arguments, and facts, often very basic ones. I even got on the internet on sights like the Million Mom March and pointed out how the very name of the organization is in itself loaded with emotional appeal.
I asked him if he was aware of what propaganda was.
His response was that it didn't matter, because if something emotionally upsets you then that means it's bad and needs to be dealt with. "Appealing to emotions is a perfectly valid way to prove a point..."
Now I'm just on a tangent, but basing something like the law on a hunch or a feeling is, at best, stupidity. Laws restricting anything need hard precedent and careful thought and planning.
