Tuesday, July 12, 2005

"Lunatic Fringe"?

Arms and the Law refers us to Polsby and Kates' new law review article, which begins very cryptically:

"This essay seeks to reclaim a serious argument from the lunatic fringe. We argue a connection exists between the restrictiveness of a country's civilian weapons policy and its liability to commit genocide upon its own people."

I wasn't aware of a lunatic fringe making this argument.

JPFO and its supporters have been making this argument for years, and struggling mightily to get the ideas noticed. Curiously, they are not even mentioned in this paper.

Mr. Polsby--it would help if you told us exactly who you have in mind when you use the term "lunatic fringe."

2 comments:

Kevin said...

It's pretty obvious. The "lunatic fringe" are those who support civilian disarmament for "safety."

While I'm not a fan of hyperbole, in this case I think turnabout is fair play.

David Codrea said...

That's not how I read it at all. Gun banners aren't arguing genocide as a result of gun control, so there's no need for Polsby to "reclaim" that argument from them.