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@TRayB said:

@VegasFrank said:
@TRayB Maybe they're pro-trump-violence?

That dude and the others like him probably condemned the sandy hook violence. They were also probably pro-GWOT and glad that bin laden took 4 in the chest. I know I was. Maybe I'm pro gun violence?

It's an interesting ethical quandary. @First_Warrior did time in Nam, and that was also a shooting war. Pro gun violence? I don't think so.

Can you be pro troops and pro military without accepting some sort of gun violence?

Either way, it's food for thought.

Go ahead and bask in your vindication, lol, you deserve it.

See Frank, it's funny, I mostly agree with your entire post. It's clear they aren't against violence as a whole. That's what made your initial statement so silly. Of course, it was clearly a ham-fisted attempt to catch me in the hypocrisy of saying I was against violence when directed against Trump, while condoning violence against others because I am a Trump supporter. I believe no such thing.

I condemn the Sandy Hook violence, and am glad bin Laden got ventilated.

My understanding is most men who served in war and killed others have no desire to do it again. I am glad I never had to, I have no desire to kill anyone.

The thing about violence is, though, it is a means to an end, and can be put to use to serve an evil end, or a good and righteous end. When it's used to take what belongs to others, to threaten and intimidate in order to have your own way, to remove your political enemies because they don't believe the same thing you believe, it is serving an evil end. When it is used to resist those evil efforts, it is serving a positive good. For example, Ghandi was not necessarily a pacifist, he only determined to use pacifist means to pursue freedom because the British had denied Indians from ownership of best means of obtaining freedom, a population armed and able to resist imperialist rule..

I do not condone violence, gun or otherwise, in pursuit of evil, selfish ends. However, I do not intend to compromise on my human right (not just an American right) to defend myself, my family, and others, from people who would use violence to harm me or others. I especially won't compromise with a political party who on one hand tells me I do not have a right, and should not have the ability, to protect myself using the means I feel is best for me, while on the other hand is actively doing things to make it more difficult and dangerous to live in this country, and facilitating and pursuing wars all over the globe.

I honestly wasn't trying to catch you in an inconsistency. It was legitimately an ethical question. I am the same as you. And even though I may have wished that guy incapacitated a million times, I never wished it by the hands of someone else because that hurts the freedom that I've dedicated my life to defending. Best case scenario, he would have self-eliminated through jail or A spontaneous Rush of common Sense, or something else.

My ethical query was more focused on how some people might equate Osama bin laden to Trump, and the gun wasn't the important part of the violence. Maybe better stated is that maybe this guy and people who think like him don't consider this gun violence more than they consider it a gun event, kind of like a war or an assassination of an enemy like Osama bin laden.

In that regard, you delve into the psyche of the American anti-populist. That is a subject which interests me and for which I might learn something through investigation and conversation.

An interesting social experiment would be for you to reread my post in the literal, and pretend someone like Steve or Chris wrote it. Would you still feel the same way that is, would you still feel like The author was trying to provoke you?

I'm guessing that you wouldn't. Put another way, I think that when you and I engage in this arena, you presume acrimony, sarcasm, narcissism, and righteous indignation from me. My conclusion based on that circumstantial evidence is that I've earned my reputation with you through my previous communications. Just like always, I will own them. Sorry brother for offending you but not sorry for my convictions. Truck Fump.