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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   25028 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026

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The difficulty with 2A is that a straightforward reading is not really compatible with a stable modern society.

I see this claim thrown around as obviously true on a regular basis but I don't think it really stands up to scrutiny. Something about an armed society being a polite society.

How are you defining "stable" and "modern" in this context? Do New York and California count? Do Texas and Florida not?

Something about an armed society being a polite society.

I don't think that's necessarily so, in the hey-day of duelling what you got was finer and finer gradations of who was a gentleman and who wasn't, so who could be insulted with impunity and who couldn't, and if a social inferior could or could not challenge a social superior, and fights over what we would consider nothing or at least that an apology would be acceptable. An armed society, in those days, was one where the most minor perceived slight demanded blood or else, because being perceived not to defend your status and position meant you could be treated as contemptible and cut out of society.

Two examples from "Nicholas Nickleby", the first being that Nicholas hears his sister being insulted, demands satisfaction, and is refused on grounds of being a nobody. The second is the two men of equal status (or one is slightly higher) quarrel and then it ends in a duel, because now they are both of a position where it's expected:

(1)

He heard his sister’s sufferings derided, and her virtuous conduct jeered at and brutally misconstrued; he heard her name bandied from mouth to mouth, and herself made the subject of coarse and insolent wagers, free speech, and licentious jesting.

…‘Let me have a word with you, sir,’ said Nicholas.

‘With me, sir?’ retorted Sir Mulberry Hawk, eyeing him in disdainful surprise.

‘I said with you,’ replied Nicholas, speaking with great difficulty, for his passion choked him.

‘A mysterious stranger, upon my soul!’ exclaimed Sir Mulberry, raising his wine-glass to his lips, and looking round upon his friends.

‘Will you step apart with me for a few minutes, or do you refuse?’ said Nicholas sternly.

Sir Mulberry merely paused in the act of drinking, and bade him either name his business or leave the table.

…‘Your name and address?’ said Nicholas, turning paler as his passion kindled.

‘I shall give you neither,’ replied Sir Mulberry.

…Sir Mulberry looked at him contemptuously, and, addressing his companions, said— ‘Let the fellow talk, I have nothing serious to say to boys of his station; and his pretty sister shall save him a broken head, if he talks till midnight.’

…‘Will you make yourself known to me?’ asked Nicholas in a suppressed voice.

‘No,’ replied the other fiercely, and confirming the refusal with an oath. ‘No.’

…‘You are a villain,’ said Nicholas.

‘You are an errand-boy for aught I know,’ said Sir Mulberry Hawk.

‘I am the son of a country gentleman,’ returned Nicholas, ‘your equal in birth and education, and your superior I trust in everything besides. I tell you again, Miss Nickleby is my sister. Will you or will you not answer for your unmanly and brutal conduct?’

‘To a proper champion—yes. To you—no,’ returned Sir Mulberry, taking the reins in his hand. ‘Stand out of the way, dog. William, let go her head.’

…‘Ye-es,’ said the other, turning full upon him. ‘If you had told him who you were; if you had given him your card, and found out, afterwards, that his station or character prevented your fighting him, it would have been bad enough then; upon my soul it would have been bad enough then.’

(2)

Meanwhile, the two seconds, as they may be called now, after a long conference, each with his principal, met together in another room. Both utterly heartless, both men upon town, both thoroughly initiated in its worst vices, both deeply in debt, both fallen from some higher estate, both addicted to every depravity for which society can find some genteel name and plead its most depraving conventionalities as an excuse, they were naturally gentlemen of most unblemished honour themselves, and of great nicety concerning the honour of other people.

These two gentlemen were unusually cheerful just now; for the affair was pretty certain to make some noise, and could scarcely fail to enhance their reputations.

‘This is an awkward affair, Adams,’ said Mr. Westwood, drawing himself up.

‘Very,’ returned the captain; ‘a blow has been struck, and there is but one course, of course.’

‘No apology, I suppose?’ said Mr. Westwood.

‘Not a syllable, sir, from my man, if we talk till doomsday,’ returned the captain. ‘The original cause of dispute, I understand, was some girl or other, to whom your principal applied certain terms, which Lord Frederick, defending the girl, repelled. But this led to a long recrimination upon a great many sore subjects, charges, and counter-charges. Sir Mulberry was sarcastic; Lord Frederick was excited, and struck him in the heat of provocation, and under circumstances of great aggravation. That blow, unless there is a full retraction on the part of Sir Mulberry, Lord Frederick is ready to justify.’

‘There is no more to be said,’ returned the other, ‘but to settle the hour and the place of meeting. It’s a responsibility; but there is a strong feeling to have it over. Do you object to say at sunrise?’

‘Sharp work,’ replied the captain, referring to his watch; ‘however, as this seems to have been a long time breeding, and negotiation is only a waste of words, no.’

‘Something may possibly be said, out of doors, after what passed in the other room, which renders it desirable that we should be off without delay, and quite clear of town,’ said Mr. Westwood. ‘What do you say to one of the meadows opposite Twickenham, by the river-side?’

The captain saw no objection.

...After a pause, and a brief conference between the seconds, they, at length, turned to the right, and taking a track across a little meadow, passed Ham House and came into some fields beyond. In one of these, they stopped. The ground was measured, some usual forms gone through, the two principals were placed front to front at the distance agreed upon, and Sir Mulberry turned his face towards his young adversary for the first time. He was very pale, his eyes were bloodshot, his dress disordered, and his hair dishevelled. For the face, it expressed nothing but violent and evil passions. He shaded his eyes with his hand; grazed at his opponent, steadfastly, for a few moments; and, then taking the weapon which was tendered to him, bent his eyes upon that, and looked up no more until the word was given, when he instantly fired. The two shots were fired, as nearly as possible, at the same instant. In that instant, the young lord turned his head sharply round, fixed upon his adversary a ghastly stare, and without a groan or stagger, fell down dead.

‘He’s gone!’ cried Westwood, who, with the other second, had run up to the body, and fallen on one knee beside it.

‘His blood on his own head,’ said Sir Mulberry. ‘He brought this upon himself, and forced it upon me.’

‘Captain Adams,’ cried Westwood, hastily, ‘I call you to witness that this was fairly done. Hawk, we have not a moment to lose. We must leave this place immediately, push for Brighton, and cross to France with all speed. This has been a bad business, and may be worse, if we delay a moment. Adams, consult your own safety, and don’t remain here; the living before the dead; goodbye!’

With these words, he seized Sir Mulberry by the arm, and hurried him away. Captain Adams—only pausing to convince himself, beyond all question, of the fatal result—sped off in the same direction, to concert measures with his servant for removing the body, and securing his own safety likewise.

So died Lord Frederick Verisopht, by the hand which he had loaded with gifts, and clasped a thousand times; by the act of him, but for whom, and others like him, he might have lived a happy man, and died with children’s faces round his bed.

So then outlaw dueling, not being armed.

It has been outlawed, it was at the time (see the survivors of the duel fleeing to France so they wouldn't be prosecuted in Britain) but duelling arises out of being armed. The idea of the "polite society", after all, is that impoliteness gets you a gun in your face and your face shot off, and everyone around you tolerates or even applauds that because 'talk shit, get hit'. Hence duelling.

If you have guns, people will use them. I'm not opposed to guns for defence or shooting guns for sport, but the idea that "if everyone walks around with a gun, we'll have a much better-behaved and less criminal society" is not correct. Are ghetto neighbourhoods islands of tranquillity due to every fifteen year old walking around tooled up?

duelling arises out of being armed

Formal duelling in the US is basically extinct, despite all the guns. Anything else you might call "duelling" only arises out of being armed if you exclude unarmed mutual combat, in which case your argument is just a tautology.

I don't think @quiet_NaN is saying that widespread gun ownership or widespread concealed carry of handguns is incompatible with a modern society - he is saying that the text of the 2nd amendment doesn't distinguish between "citizen grade weapons" like AR15s and "military grade weapons" like F35s, VX gas grenades, and nukes, and therefore taking it literally and seriously would allow nuclear-armed Branch Davidians and suchlike, and that that is not compatible with a modern society. I agree - I think that a government that is actually meaningfully restricted in its actions by fear of small groups of armed citizens is a failed state, and would perform like one.

See for example this subthread where pro-2nd amendment Motteposters argued that it protected a private right to own siege artillery and warships at the time of the founding.

At some point there is going to be litigation over whether the 2nd amendment permits private ownership of killer drones. The legal arguments will be about as edifying as the litigation over full-auto and scary-looking semi-auto rifles, but the results will matter.

he is saying that the text of the 2nd amendment doesn't distinguish between "citizen grade weapons" like AR15s and "military grade weapons" like F35s, VX gas grenades, and nukes, and therefore taking it literally and seriously would allow nuclear-armed Branch Davidians and suchlike, and that that is not compatible with a modern society.

I'm not entirely convinced the distinction is necessary. Anyone who is has the resources and know-how required to procure and operate an F-35 or Nuclear Weapon is going to be a lot more than just some "fringe whacko" in a compound somewhere. We're talking Bond villains not Branch Davidians, and you don't send cops to arrest a Bond villain, you send SOCOM to "extract" them.

Side notice: Maduro is hardly a Bond villain.

First off, 2A does not only guarantee the right to bear guns, but also the right to buy or sell guns (I know, with certain restrictions). If an anti-gun government passed legislation which outlawed all commercial manufacturing of handguns and all sale of firearm parts, the SCOTUS would be very likely to say that this would have the end effect of making it implausible for civilians to own firearms.

So for the purpose of the thought experiment, we do not need to assume that the weapon will be lovingly hand-crafted by some deranged group in some compound any more than mass shooters printing their own handguns.

Nukes and F-35s are only really affordable for the billionaire class, though I suspect that plutonium for bombs could likely be bred rather cheaply if there was sufficient demand for it, perhaps a few millions per nuke?

But you do not need that level of firepower to cause a state to fail. Elderly MiGs are probably in the price range of anyone who can scrape together a few millions. If they were protected by 2A (so you are free to take your MiG with full weapon systems when crossing the US), this would challenge the present US air defense concept, which I assume is based around the fact that hostile jets will not generally appear out of nowhere over the skies of Kansas and attack random towns. Likewise, if the law allowed you to buy 18-wheelers full of chemical explosives for your 2A needs, that would tremendously increase the amount of damage any given mass murderer could do. Radiological weapons would be another low-hanging fruit, if it became legal for citizens to own dirty bombs as an area-denial weapon (e.g. for use in cold wars against their local HOA), we have enough spend nuclear fuel worldwide to give every American 30TBq or so, which would certainly be enough to kill a few people by accident -- or dozens with malice (to say nothing of crashing the local property market).

Maduro is hardly a Bond villain.

In License to Kill the primary antagonist/villian is a cartel boss who has installed himself as the effective dictator of a Caribbean island with the assistance of a foreign communist regime seeking to destabilize the region. Maduro is literally a bond villian.

If they were protected by 2A this would challenge the present US air defense concept

Were you aware that before he became NASA administrator Jared Issacman was best known in gunnie circles for registering a fully armed and operational Mig-29 with the ATF as a Destructive Device? There are a lot of old warbirds in private hands out there and a non zero number of them are still "fully functional" if you cattch my meaning, yet society persists.

"BEHOLD the power of my FULLY ARMED and OPERATIONAL Fulcrum!"

Were you aware that before he became NASA administrator Jared Issacman was best known in gunnie circles for registering a fully armed and operational Mig-29 with the ATF as a Destructive Device?

I've managed to confirm the Mig-29 (assuming that was a typo in his name), but not "fully armed". Could you provide a source for this?

The Branch davidians could easily have had sarin and the like(and indeed, Aum Shinrikyo had chemical weapons, biological weapons, and might have had nukes).

If access to chemical weapons is incompatible with a stable modern society, AND Aum Shinrikyo had chemical weapons, the only possible conclusion is that Japan is a not a stable modern society.

Would you endorse that statement?

At some point there is going to be litigation over whether the 2nd amendment permits private ownership of killer drones. The legal arguments will be about as edifying as the litigation over full-auto and scary-looking semi-auto rifles, but the results will matter.

Speaking as something close to a 2A absolutist, this can be mitigated the same way the US can regulate psi-emitters and other forms of bio-engineered insectoid war-horrors - by the FCC.

The FCC is as subject to the Second Amendment as any other part of government.

I think the idea is that since psi-emitters and insectoid war-horrors are fictional, they are regulated by the FCC as fictional media.

Oh, I thought we were talking about actual spectrum (and some theoretical psi spectrum). Killer drones are real, ask any Russian soldier in Ukraine.

The joke is that they'd transmit along the radio spectrum, and thus be subject to FCC regulation.

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