The Attorney General’s exact words:
What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes. You know, when I was growing up, people smoked all the time. Both my parents did. But over time, we changed the way that people thought about smoking, so now we have people who cower outside of buildings and kind of smoke in private and don’t want to admit it.
You’ve been a bad, bad… citizen.
Cower — interesting choice of words that. Cower is a word more associated with fear than shame in my mind. One cowers in fear. One blushes or hides out of shame.1
It’s a natural inclination in those with a love of power to want to see those beneath them cower. Our proper posture when faced with the disapproval of our betters is on bended knee, shoulders trembling, head bowed in anxious deference.
It’s also interesting that Holder suggests smokers “cower” outside of buildings, doing their nasty deed in private, on their own initiative. Silly me, I thought it was because government regulations and corporate policies require them to smoke only in designated areas outside. I doubt most such smokers feel any shame in the act, though they may huddle in winter.
I wonder, Does Holder cower in shame over his responsibility for hundreds of gun deaths as a result of Operation Fast and Furious and his zealous prosecution of the Drug War?2
Notes
- I suppose one can cower in shame as well, though surely not without some fear mixed in. [↩]
- Assuming one believes Holder’s claim of ignorance and the government report purporting to “vindicate” him (quelle surprise!), the federal program still happened under his watch and so the unrepentant drug warrior bears responsibility. And given his zealous prosecution of the Drug War, he is certainly responsible for at least some gun-related deaths in the United States and Mexico. [↩]
Geoffrey is an Aristotelian-Liberal political philosopher, an adjunct instructor for Buena Vista University, the founder and executive editor of Prometheus Unbound: A Libertarian Review of Fiction and Literature, and the webmaster of The Libertarian Standard. His work has appeared in Libertarian Papers, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, the Journal of Value Inquiry, and Transformers and Philosophy. He lives in Edgewood, KY with his wife and two children.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Holder should cower in shame!
Treasonous traitor!
By design, all federal police officers are under the control of Mr. Holder. De facto, so are all other police officers. Will he be conveying this command to them, regarding the ways they carry their weapons?
Cower definition:
cow·er
/ˈkouər/
Verb
Crouch down in fear.
So, you were right. No need to qualify.
Wait a minute…isn’t the President a smoker?
@Bee – Ha! You beat me to it! Maybe Obama quit because Holder shamed him. What would the implications of that even be?!?
Shame on you, Bee! You know better than to bring facts like that to the surface. Do you want the general public to wise up? Now, go have another cup of don’t ask questions and drop the subject.:)
Hey, Holder, just in case you read this, you can suck my ***k.
Look up the Yiddish.
The NRA only represents about 2% of gun owners, but because they are the only group getting any press a lot of cogent arguments aren’t making it to the public eye. It would be nice if a libertarian site put some energy into a post that was … instructive, rather than just sarcastic.
In any case Tuesday is the supposedly the day we will either here the “suggestion” or executive order. Am I the only one that feels like the POTUS is TRYING to sell guns? Also, there’s a court case making its way to the Supremes – Peruta v San Diego – that might result in every state becoming ‘right to carry.’ Any speculation on what will happen if an executive order comes in conflict with that?
good points ty for the info
“…so now we have people who cower outside of buildings and kind of smoke in private and don’t want to admit it.”
People go outside b/c the anti-freedom politicians have oppressed property rights and made it illegal to smoke indoors! I smoke and own guns. I am ashamed of neither. I know there are risks with both. If you don’t like it then you can go shove off!
When holder goes about town without a phalanx of ARMED guards he can start talkin about my right to personal protection…
“I wonder, Does Holder cower in shame over his responsibility for hundreds of gun deaths as a result of Operation Fast and Furious and his zealous prosecution of the Drug War”
One follow-up question that no one has ever asked Holder in the Fast and Furious investigation is, “Since Fast and Furious happened on your watch, and you claim ignorance of the program, you are, in fact, claiming incompetence as your defense. Is that correct?” I would love to see him squirm out of that one.
Good question, Merrill. I would love to see him squirm out of that one!
Incompetence is putting it rather mildly. I’d say negligence!
I really like the opening paragraph restating holder’s words.
“What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes.”
This is explicitly saying that we need to indoctrinate children in the public school system to think it’s bad to protect themselves. That the people that do protect themselves are bad or crazy people…
Explicit admission of government indoctrination.
Well, this jackass Holder is no different from all of the incompetent employees that we have in DC. For some reason they think that the rules of conduct and common sense dont apply to them.
At least he got one point right, it is tghe attitude twoard guns that is the problem. Boys from the hood shooting them off like play toys. Did anyone hear about the teen ager who was posing with a loaded pistol for a facebook post and accidently killed her brother wiht a bullett to the head? Stupid people made even dumber by their immersion in the popular stupid culture.