Let me put it this way: If you are sitting watching a debate between two parties, and one is well prepared, unemotional and not only uses good concrete information but can point out the logical fallacies of his opponent, who is most likely to win the debate?
That would be well & good if we had enough time for the debate. What I'm saying is that we're stuck in a situation in which our "debate" is framed by a sensationalist media. The "nightly news" lasts 30 minutes (much of which is taken up by medication commercials). Newspapers aren't much different. The framework of the modern "debate" doesn't lend itself to rational thought. Rationale takes too long. We have to make our point quickly, with plenty of whiz-flash-bang, before Brian Williams moves on to stories about Tom & Katie's super-volcanoe-spawn--Dianetics-alienbaby, sports, and the human-interest-story-of-the-moment.
The VPC and the Brady Bunch have already figured this out -- they throw out some sensational headline like, "having a gun in the home makes you a kazillion times more likely to suddenly freak out and kill preschoolers", and then they throw out a bunch of statistics, numbers & graphs to support their claim. It works -- how else can you explain the so-called "Assault-Weapons Ban" or any Californian gun law, for that matter? Those laws aren't based on rational thinking -- they came from knee-jerk reactions, probably driven by a singular event, and by flames fanned by the Bradys' statistics and numbers.
If we're to keep up, we'd better get with the program. Whether you like it or not, the American public has no time for rationale. Your run-of-the-mill soccer mom half-listens to Robin & Co. on CNN HN while trying to get her hubby off to work at the law firm & her 6 kids ready to pile into the Hummer H2 to get 'em to prep school on time. She doesn't have time for rationale. She
does have time for a couple of statistics, though. And if the statistics that our beloved Mrs. Soccer Mom hears only tell her that "more guns = more crime", what is she going to do? Why, being an upstanding PTA member, she's going to pick up her celly in the Hummer H2 on the way to drop the kiddies off at prep school, and she's gonna hit speed-dial, and she's gonna tell her Congress people how guns are eeeeevil, and they should be banned, and is Mr. Congressperson's office aware of how much her hubby's firm donated to his campaign last year?
I'm not trying to get you to like it - I'm just trying to get you to see how it works. America today prides itself on multi-tasking -- not on its ability to take the time to completely think out an issue. I'm not saying it's a good thing -- I'm just calling it like I see it. That's the time in which we live. And if we want to keep the Second Amendment intact, we'd better darn-skippy-well learn how to throw Mrs. Soccer Mom some stats that show "less guns = more crime", as was suggested at the beginning of this thread.
Because she doesn't have time for a debate.
Edited to correct some of my lousy spelling.
