It's amazing to me how badly people confuse the words freedom and liberty. I'm quite sure if they thought about for a moment, they would not be running around proclaiming freedom at the top of their lungs.
To give a succinct explanation of the difference, consider the following: if you have a well and your neighbor decides to come and pee in it, he has the freedom to do so as long as he is willing to deal with your very angry personal response.
On the other hand, he does not have the liberty to do it because we live in a society that has laws about property rights and harm.
Liberty in the case of your well means that if your neighbor pollutes your water supply, he will be arrested. His arrest will be sanctioned by law and custom and you will not expected to go out and punch him in the nose.
Freedom, on the other hand, is the anarchy of doing whatever you want whenever you want to and to hell with anyone else. In this case, you might want to take boxing lessons.
Anyone listening to the gun control debates should be able to see this ignorant confusion playing out quite insanely. It is everywhere: letters to the editor, columnists, advertising. It is current among members of the community that I can only describe as paranoid conspiracy theorists who confuse efforts to promote social responsibility that are the hallmark of liberty with the so-called freedom to buy anything that fires however they damned well please.
The worst yet I have come across is the truly ignorant letter printed in today's newspaper that claims that gun control doesn't work because it didn't prevent the Boston bombings. I hope the newspaper printed it with a shake of the head so we can see what this society has come to.
No amount of sanity penetrates these self-righteous brains. They seem unable to realize that a large number of their fellow citizens do not appreciate weaponry in their suburbs. Sorry, Chums, we, and I include myself here, do not feel safe with guns in your hands or in our houses, and we don't trust your judgment on the matter, particularly not when you quote the gun lobby.
In fact, I am now so disgusted with the irrational frenzy surrounding this matter that I wait for the argument that once nuclear weapons can be made portable, they will be covered by the second amendment and people can keep them in their houses for self-defense.
God preserve us when that debate happens. At that time, I assume the National Rifle Association will change its name to the National Weapons Association.
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