Stance on gun control

[Bostana]

I never really understand (because I never asked) what the Marxist opinion is on gun control. I understand arming the proletariat and all. Opinion welcomed
Thanks :)

[#FF0000]

General against things like the assault weapons bans. I think background checks are fine though.

To be honest I don't feel too strongly. I just want to be able to shoot at paper.

[Klaatu]

Almost everyone should be able to own a gun. Except criminals and lunatics. Or people that want to own ten thousand guns and pipe bombs ...
that's just not normal.

[Sudsy]

From a revolutionary standpoint the people should arm themselves to fight and resist, but from the standpoint of maintaining a civil society (assuming a fascist society has been destroyed) , i don`t think complete gun bans or complete gun ownership are solutions. I believe in ownership that keeps guns regulated and protected.

[Red Nightmare]

I am against gun control. Gun control is not designed to stop crime like supporters tell you but rather to allow the state to monopolize the means of violence by restricting the populace's access to weapons. Hopefully the revolution will not turn into a complete Russian Civil War type shootout but if it does the revolutionary proletariat will want to be able to defend itself from the forces of reaction. There are too many examples of revolutionary left groups being stamped out by government thugs. As revolutionaries who advocate for the overthrow of such power structures we should be opposed to such measures.

[Starship Stormtrooper]

There was a long thread on this just a little while ago here http://www.revleft.com/vb/gun-rightsi-t178181/index.htm (http://www.revleft.com/vb/gun-rightsi-t178181/index.html) I would reiterate my opinion in the thread, namely that gun control is counterproductive, falls mostly upon the poor and minorities, and will only inhibit us (and not the richer and more well connected reactionaries) in any revolutionary situation.

[Comrade Samuel]

I am against gun control. Gun control is not designed to stop crime like supporters tell you but rather to allow the state to monopolize the means of violence by restricting the populace's access to weapons. Hopefully the revolution will not turn into a complete Russian Civil War type shootout but if it does the revolutionary proletariat will want to be able to defend itself from the forces of reaction. There are too many examples of revolutionary left groups being stamped out by government thugs. As revolutionaries who advocate for the overthrow of such power structures we should be opposed to such measures.

In a world with drones, tanks and cruise missiles I doubt weather or not the American workers can posses high capacity magazines matters.

To be honest I'm in favor of gun control, background checks are obviously supported by everybody who doesn't stand to make a profit off of gun violence but I still feel as though that is not good enough. Why would anybody need to own an assault rife?

For self defense and hunting? That sounds like overkill.

To fight off a tyrannical government? See line 1.

To shoot at paper? Go right ahead! Have fun! But does limiting the amount of ammunition you can have in your posseion or better yet letting the range hold on to the guns really hinder that experience too much?

[dēmistĕfī]

To give the bourgeois state the mandate to disarm any particular individual or group is to give the state the mandate to disarm the proletariat. One would have to be brain-dead to suggest otherwise. The same goes for giving the state the mandate to carry out the death penalty, or to do really anything at all that isn't a concession given as a result of organic proletarian struggle.

The bourgeoisie are no longer revolutionary and we are far beyond the point where we can collaborate with them on anything at all. The present situation is completely contrary to the interests of "the real movement which abolishes the present state of things".

That being said, communists cannot work with the gun rights movement either, for reasons that should be quite obvious; the death of all revolutionary energies does lie in class collaboration, after all.

[Tenka]

To give the bourgeois state the mandate to disarm any particular individual or group is to give the state the mandate to disarm the proletariat. One would have to be brain-dead to suggest otherwise. The same goes for giving the state the mandate to carry out the death penalty, or to do really anything at all that isn't a concession given as a result of organic proletarian struggle.

The bourgeoisie are no longer revolutionary and we are far beyond the point where we can collaborate with them on anything at all. The present situation is completely contrary to the interests of "the real movement which abolishes the present state of things".

That being said, communists cannot work with the gun rights movement either, for reasons that should be quite obvious; the death of all revolutionary energies does lie in class collaboration, after all.

What you say about class collaboration is true.
And indeed, the bourgeoisie is no longer revolutionary. But the proletariat is not yet revolutionary, as far as I can see--not conscious, I mean; and the vast majority of us (the proles) still support both some form of gun control and the death penalty. And this is expected, since as Gramsci says, "the ruling ideology is the ideology of the ruling class" (horribly paraphrased and condensed).

Even so, the majority of proles in the U.S. seemed to want gun control, but they did not get it due to the prevailing interests of a certain category of bourgeoisie. Obviously we do not have any "concessions given as a result of organic proletarian struggle", but if we had, I can't say all of the forum would have been happy for it. AT ANY RATE, what probably needs to be done is the proletariat further educated on the folly of the death penalty and... I guess... of too strict firearms regulation, though I don't personally see the use of that latter since I wasn't brought up learning to like shootin' paper and shit.

More importantly though, fuck U.S. political system, and the cops, who commit a lot of gun crime not recognised as crime.

[Akshay!]

Liberals are complete hypocrites.

They ask for gun control for the population but not for the cops!
They preach non-violence/pacifism to the oppressed people but not to the state!