Indians For Guns

Is it possible for a nation to go from wide-open freedom for a civil liberty, to near-total destruction of that liberty, in just a few decades? "Yes," warn many American civil libertarians, arguing that allegedly "reasonable" restrictions on civil liberty today will start the nation down "the slippery slope" to severe repression in the future.[3] In response, proponents of today's reasonable restrictions argue that the jeremiads about slippery slopes are unrealistic or even paranoid.[4]

This Essay aims to refine the understanding of slippery slopes by examining a particular nation that did slide all the way down the slippery slope.(p.400) When the twentieth century began, the right to arms in Great Britain was robust, and subject to virtually no restrictions. As the century closes, the right has been almost obliterated. In studying the destruction of the British right to arms, this Essay draws conclusions about how slippery slopes operate in real life, and about what kinds of conditions increase or decrease the risk that the first steps down a hill will turn into a slide down a slippery slope.

For purposes of this Essay, the reader will not be asked to make a judgement about the righteousness of the (former) British right to arms or the wisdom of current British gun prohibitions and controls. Instead, the object is simply to examine how a right that is widely respected and unrestricted can, one "reasonable" step at a time, be extinguished. This Essay pays particular attention to how the public's "rights consciousness," which forms such a strong barrier against repressive laws, can weaken and then disappear. The investigation of the British experience offers some insights about the current gun control debate in the United States, and also about ongoing debates over other civil liberties. This Essay does not require that the reader have any affection for the British right to arms; presumably, the reader does have affection for some civil liberties, and the Essay aims to discover principles about how slippery slopes operate. These principles can be applied to any debate where slippery slopes are an issue.

nagarifle wrote:i do not believe that their is a true democracy in the world.
what we have is the fear syndrome,
the government fears the people and wants to keep it unarmed, the people fear the government and stay unarmed.

as GBM brings up the Magna Carta, now days the British Government does not want it around and has in practice made it null and void, for it does contain some truly rights of every man, which nowdays under mines the Governments intend to rule. but then thats politics and in any kind of politics there is no right, no justice and for sure only thing that is absolute is to compromise ones value [if they had any in the first place] to stay at the top of the rat race.
There are no rights or wrong just the top job, as the old saying goes, "working class can kiss my A** as i am the boss now"

goodboy_mentor wrote:Yes agreeing with what you are saying. Let me put it another way. How will you demolish the argument that in a democracy like in India, RKBA will "never" be needed as a last resort against State tyranny.