Lefty With a Gun

Got a message today from a new blogger who's also a new gun owner. It seems he's from the leftier side of the spectrum (It's a word! I mean, now it's a word.) And yet, he went out and got himself a gun, which led to some deeper thinking about why people own guns and what the 2nd Amendment really means. I've noticed that I tend to attract some folks who think of themselves as "lefties" but still want to talk about guns and self-defense, and I like that. Maybe these people feel better with a school teacher? I don't really know. It doesn't really matter. The thing a lot of people discover sooner or later is that "left" and "right" are really labels for coalitions of political alliances, some of them very tenuously connected. If you think you're a "lefty," that still doesn't really tell me what you believe. Does that mean you're pro-choice when it comes to abortion? Does it mean you think gays should be treated fairly? Does it mean you think guns are bad? Does it mean you think America pours the evangelical Christianity on a little thick?

Well, I agree with most of those things. Does that make me a "lefty?" I don't really see how; I'm a curmudgeonly, leave-me-alone old grouch, that's all. To many on the left, I'm a "righty" because I believe in a small government, a strong military, simple laws, strong contracts, individualism and property rights. But are those necessarily "right-wing" ideas? I don't really buy that either.

What I expect Lefty to discover through this process is that although some of his political positions may change as a shooter, his core principles won't necessarily change at all. Right will still be right. Wrong will still be wrong. He'll just have one more option for dealing with wrong if it finds him, and that's a good thing.

(And look, I admit to a slight touch of The Egos at being lumped in with Breda, Ahab, and BillH as blogs Lefty has been reading for awhile. Heady stuff.)