Noah DiekemperWe have been told, for more than a year now, that we must “RESIST” the “authoritarian” “far-right” advances of “literally Hitler” President Donald Trump. Now our celebrity counterparts have informed us that we all—man, woman, and child—must hand over our weapons to Donald Trump.
The Far Left confidently claims that Donald Trump is an ill-intentioned dictator. We have heard cries of “Impeach 45,” seen his cabinet appointments called a “junta,” and witnessed endless comparisons to nascent dictators. Yet the Far Left also trusts him to capably and in good faith conduct the disarmament of the American people—at the very least, of “assault weapons” (however that is defined), high-capacity magazines, and basically whatever else they can pass off as “military grade.”
These two beliefs are incompatible. If you distrust someone, you do not place yourself at their plenary mercy. You give people influence or power in your life only to the extent that you either trust them, or are willing to accept the risk of being wrong.
This is a distinct problem from whether lawmakers’ outlawing firearms and firearm access will result in fewer murders or crimes. (Although it is not irrelevant that Hitler relied on gun control in the Third Reich.) That does not mean that this basic inconsistency, exploited by the Left to push two agenda points at once, should pass unnoticed.
Either they are bluffing about enacting gun control or (more likely) none of them actually sees in Donald Trump a radically unprecedented threat to our Republic. We should require them to pick one and concede the other so that when we engage with them, we can have a rational discussion.
