All in Favor of "Gun Control" Raise Your Right Hand

This is the title of a poster produced by Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership. The barber I used to go to had a small version on the wall opposite the chairs. The poster displays the words in huge block letters under a picture of Adolf Hitler giving the Nazi salute. The JPFO's argument regarding this poster is that no monster or tyrant wants the people to be armed.

Considering all of the different kinds of gun control, this is not a very good question to ask.

Almost everyone favors some measure or another which could be construed as gun control. It's not just a matter of banning weapons of a given type. Trigger locks are often lumped into the "gun control" classification, and yet many more people would favor trigger locks than would favor banning, say, toys that happen to look like guns.

Along a similar vein, mandated gun safety classes could be considered a form of gun control, and even most of the staunchest NRA members would favor such a measure (many, in fact, openly advocate it).

And that's the problem with the question. It's such a broad definition that you'll get many people say they're in favor of it, without even being quite sure what you're really asking.

Political statisticians love this sort of thing, because it means they can twist the results around into almost anything they want to say.

Hmm, mutter, mutter, Godwin's Law... Well, anyhow:

Hitler liked dogs and children. All in Favor of Dogs and Children Raise Your RIght Hand!

Better yet:

David Duke is opposed to gun control. All Opposed to Gun Control Raise Your Right Hand!

Have I just proven that gun control is a good idea after all, by opposing it to David Duke? Or have I proven that David Duke is a nice guy after all, by opposing him to gun control? Or have I just been beating my gums together for the exercise?

Single-variable logic is not a useful way to go about trying to understand the world. Take just one step beyond the propaganda slogan at hand, and you sink into a swamp of contradictory gibberish. It's good for a giggle when you're preaching to the converted, but don't mistake it for a proof of anything. Since Godwin's Law has already been invoked, I may as well mention in passing that this is just the kind of logic that HITLER used! In fact, it is. That doesn't make you Hitler for using it, though. It's just an amusing observation.

All in favor of making sense, raise whatever hand pleases you. Or don't.