Unfortunately it seems if you ask for civility you are immediately attacked and branded liberal, anti gun, a non patriot etc by a vocal few on this forum. It seems the world becomes more divisive and radical daily no matter which side you are talking about.
James
Absolutely correct.
Unfortunately, the article by the President of Notre Dame is quite correct and will not be heeded in the least. Civil discussion and attempting resolution through discussion and logic is largely lost on people. We have a culture in which shouting down the other speaker, talking over the other speaker, and reciting predigested propaganda/advertising talking points is considered debate and discussion. A while back I got in a hell of a row at work - where discussions of all sorts while working was both possible and the norm - for simply insisting that it was a mark of respect to not talk over the other speaker, and that mutually respecting the other speaker required such. I got shouted down in and by a roomful of lawyers - professionals traditionally devoted to resolving disputes by reasoned, logical, respectful discsusion.
Moreover, in my practice I used to spend a lot of my work life on trying and preparing to try civil cases to juries. I quit that kind of work for lots of reasons, among them that I was being precluded from offering logical, coherent argument to juries by judges more interested in clearing their schedule and satisfying an administrator looking at clearance statistics.
Moving back to the gun control arguments, I do not see any real room for logical, reasoned discourse
in the arena of the politicians who will vote yea or nay on any proposal,
nor those who will craft the administrative regulations which are bound to come down if/when new legislation fails to pass (or in addition to it). The pols have staked out their positions, pro and con, and any "compromise" is more likely to be the result of buying off a pol (by pork, arm-twisting, or whatever) or (figuratively)beating the pol into submission in one direction or the other. Otherwise, their minds are made up.
On the other hand, I do see room for careful, quiet persuasion of non-politicians - the people next door, so to speak. I've seen some movement as regards the New York newspaper that published the addresses of gun permit holders. There has been a significant negative reaction to that story once people realized that jail guards were being taunted by inmates with "we know where you live" and battered women's addresses were now available to their batterers. Nuance - something the "right" is often accused of being incapable of - allows people to understand that, for example, banning all guns will not do anything to curb violence. I had a nun, lamenting the school shooting, in stitches with laughter when I reminded her that people have been killing each other since there have been people and will so long as there are people - "ask Cain and Abel about it".
Being the reasonable guy in the room works with regular people. Being intransigent is going to have to be the way with pols on this go-round.
