Compromise

“I won’t compromise my 2nd Amendment rights!” Whenever you hear that sentence or one like it from someone, it’s a safe bet you can ignore the rest of whatever they’re going to say. Anyone who says they won’t compromise their rights is living in a fantasyland, because let me tell you – the Second Amendment has already been compromised. Additionally, everyone is willing to accept certain compromises, even the guy who thinks he won’t. It’s just a matter of finding the right deal.

To elaborate, let’s imagine the Second Amendment as a big cake at a party. A compromise is if you have a piece of the cake, and someone offers to trade their piece of cake for yours. Let’s say your piece of cake is small but has a really rad chunk of frosting on it, and so you trade your small but well-frosted slice for a piece that is overall larger. That’s compromise. It’s not a compromise when someone comes along and takes a piece of your cake, either by force or deception.

The current gun control push is not compromise. We’re not getting anything for our piece of the cake that they’re trying to take away. To continue the analogy, instead of trading us something for our delicious, well frosted cake, the other kid at the party has whined to teacher that our piece has more frosting, and no one needs all that frosting and we should be forced to surrender our cake to be fair.

There is also a difference between “compromise” and incremental gains. Over the last 10 years, we’ve been getting pieces of cake back. Heller, McDonald, the CCW revolution, Constitutional Carry, all of these things are small pieces of the cake. Now suddenly, the GOA-No Compromise crowd is back again, telling everyone that they won’t give up any of their cake, when the reality is they already have.

Ultimately, that’s the problem with the attitude of no compromise. Sure, it feels great to say you’ll never give up your cake, and when someone is trying to take your cake by force, you shouldn’t. Right now, we should resist all new attempts at gun control with everything we have; and not give an inch. I have to be emphatic, that the current push isn’t compromise at all – it’s the taking our cake under threat of force.

When you think about it, it’s really the gun control side that’s the party of no compromise. Oh sure, they make noises about not wanting a full on gun ban, but their deeds betray their intentions. Their no compromise ends with all of our cake, taken by force.