From Confessions of a former gun control fanatic on Tech Paladin
This is a great blog post. All too often we think of anti-gunners as blithering idiots who are ruled by emotion and completely lack any sense of logic. While this is true for some, it is certianly ont the case for all. Some can change.
I admit it, I was a stupid little kid, okay! But seriously, I actually used to believe these sorts of things! I was, dare I say, even bigoted against guns and their owners. But really, kids believe all kinds of stupid things, the really outrageous aspect of this is that nobody ever corrected me. Nobody stopped and said, “Wait! That doesn’t make any sense! You’re arguing for laws we already have! And no woman who shoots a male burglar would ever go to jail; that assertion is just wrong!” Sadly, this never happened. See, I was taught to understand and respect African-Americans, Hispanics, and poor people, but not Republicans, and certainly not anyone foolish and irresponsible enough to own a gun!
And that’s a real shame. It’s easy to empathize with people you already understand, but it takes time and patience to learn about those who are strange and alien to you. It’s the easiest thing in the world to just dismiss them as stupid, uninformed, or evil, but most people have rational, well-thought-out reasons for doing the things they do, and gun owners are no different. Strange that this is such a revelation to me, huh?
A strong person admits when they are wrong. A wise person learns from those mistakes.