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I always wondered what was actually more effective, to ruthlessly attack even the most minor of transgressions or to keep around the potential of a killing blow.
Seems to me that the logistics of maintaining power require constant use and practice. But that goes both ways. Power will learn to contain what it is confronted with.
In France we are fond of violent riots, but that means any French regime has riot police, vastly limiting the utility of direct action as a political tactic.
But then again I see the US's 2a growing ever more theoretical a right to contest the government militarily precisely because that's not a button you want to press often.
Before covid there were several cases of armed protestors getting blue states to change their legislative plans in red-friendly ways- some firearms related and some not.
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I think it's both situational and tactical. Lawsuits are very expensive and you can waste 8 years only to have them thrown out because you didn't pick the right vehicle. At the same time, in a situation where one has a benefit in leverage and relative effort, it is beneficial to flood the field. I don't see a one-size-fits-all piece of advice.
Also I think the 2A is doing rather well. There will always be some gap left when imposing federal dictat on recalcitrant States (same when it was abortion from the left), but most of the US has shall-issue CCW.
Where's the gap in gay marriage? The gap in abortion was rather smaller and always contested until Dobbs. Meanwhile, we've got multiple states (including NY, of Bruen fame) with "shall issue" CCW which have so many exceptions in places where you are allowed to carry, that you'll very likely be a felon if you attempt to take advantage of it. And I still can't buy a gun in any state (including my home state of NJ), whereas leaving the state for an abortion (or marriage) was never forbidden.
Heller and Bruen were absolutely empty victories. The case which matters is Rahimi, which says "when push comes to shove, the Court will find a reason to accept a gun restriction".
Prior to Dobbs, there were States with just a single abortion clinic. Most everyone with a fetal anomaly detected at the point of anatomy scan (can't get those before 20 weeks) had to fly out to what, 2 dozen clinics?
Gay marriage doesn't have a gap because even Republicans got behind it. At its peak (ironically the T part of the LGBT movement sunk it a bit recently) it was polling 67% -- that's more than Reagan got against Mondale (59-41) or LBJ v Goldwater (61-39) both considered historic landslides.
Which is one more place than I have to buy a gun in New Jersey. (Or anywhere)
Google tells me there’s a few dozen FFLs serving the public in NJ.
They serve a select group who is able to fulfill the stringent requirements to buy a gun in New Jersey, which I do not (I can neither list the name and hospital affiliation of every mental health professional who may have seen me in my lifetime, nor provide 2 references meeting their criteria who will swear that I am moral enough to buy a gun). So I do not, in fact, have the right to buy a gun. And unlike with an abortion, Federal law does not allow me to buy a gun in another state which might not be so demanding.
It would be pretty funny if this forum contained two New Jerseyans who could serve as references for you. (Not that it would help solve the other half of the problem.)
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That a high roll scenario is being required to enter your name into an overt registry of gun owners does not suggest the 2A is "doing rather well".
Heck, I'm in Alabama, which is the best-case scenario with so-called “constitutional carry”, but I still consider 2A effectively dead considering my only options to arm myself are:
Submit my name and address into the federal covert gunowner registry that comprises the FBI logs of background checks submitted by FFLs;
Open myself up to entrapment*, which to my knowledge is still a 100% permitted strategy when done with agency approval, by buying from a non-FFL stranger;
Buy from a non-FFL non-stranger, which is logistically a massive nuisance since it requires them to have already owned the gun in question for at least a year, or since before I mentioned the topic to them, lest box
21.aof the 4473 render their involvement moot.*I do not have the firearms knowledge to know with certainty whether a given gun secretly has some illegal modification, nor do I trust my ability to reliably identify a glowie posing an an individual at a gun show.
Yes, you need to not be a felon to purchase a gun. If you aren't knowledgable about guns, buy one from a reputable retailer carrying a reputable manufacturer.
The real kicker is of course no one actually cares if you own a gun. Even in California there's millions of them and no one gives a shit until you start wandering around the neighborhood firing into the air (and even then, they seem annoyed they can't rationalize ignoring it).
Grow up and realize you are not the center of the universe.
See bulletpoint #1 in the post you're replying to. That would entail putting myself on the gun owner registry (that doesn't technically identify as a registry.)
Maybe they don't care yet; I just can't stand to be in the registry when the upcoming generation of boiled frogs who has their anchoring bias reset starts coping about bubbles actually forming on the bottom of the pot.
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Most of the US by state, or most of the US by where the population is? The latter is much more important in this instance- sure, it's great if the flyover states have decent gun laws, but if 100 million people live in the Northeastern Megalopolis or California, where shall-issue CCW for the most part does not exist (and AWBs universal- their laws tend to be worse than Europe's are)... then that's still a significant problem.
Population-wise ~250M/350M live in a shall issue State. About 70%.
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Outside of Cali, Hawaii, Massachusetts and the NYC and DC metros the shall issue permits are genuinely shall issue- even Chicago has shall issue CCW. The biggest states are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio- and other than NYC(and that means not upstate) and California CCW permits in those places are available to any law abiding citizen who wants one.
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