Dishonest Questions Lead to Unwanted Answers

Recently on Quora, someone asked a dishonest question about whether countries with stronger “gun control laws” had “less shootings”.

I pointed out that the question isn’t an honest one because an attack on the innocent is wrong, regardless of which tool was used.

Someone replied, accusing me of building a straw man for pointing out the flaw in the original question.

He said I needed to just answer the question as asked, rather than changing the question.

I pointed out that this is like asking him if he has stopped beating his wife yet, and refusing to consider any answer other than a “yes” or a “no”. If he points out that he doesn’t beat his wife, and never has, is that a “straw man”?

But this is how anti-gun bigots operate. It’s how they’ve fooled people into debating how much slavery is acceptable, rather than rejecting it altogether. It’s how they’ve made up ideas such as “reasonable restrictions”, “common sense gun laws”, and all the other lies they promote. They aren’t honest, and they can only “win” if you agree to play by the rules they set (and change when it suits them). I won’t.

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