Ice-T, Conservative Hero

And so it's 2012, and rapper Ice-T is not just a television star, but a conservative hero,for his stance on guns.If nothing else in modern times showed you so vividly how twisted our politics have become, let the very existence of this ad hoc coalition do the trick. Back in the day, Ice-T was history's greatest monster for writing protest songs about police brutality called "Cop Killer;" now he is a brave defender of a man's right to defend himself against tyranny, with kewl guns.

"Quite a cogent argument from Ice-T," Hot Air tells us, before showing this recent interview of the man who now plays a cop on television:

“It’s legal in the United States,” the rapper said. “The right to bear arms is because that’s the last form of defense against tyranny. Not to hunt. It’s to protect yourself from the police.”

“And do you see any link between that and this sort of instance?” Guru-Murthy challenged.

“No. Not really,” Ice-T responded. “If somebody wants to kill people, they don’t need a gun to do it.”

“Makes it easier though, doesn’t it?” the host pushed back.

“Not really. You can strap explosives on your body. They do that all the time.”

At least Ice-T has been consistent over all of these years: He glorified gun ownership then and now as a last line of protection against the police. The sametyrannical policewhom conservatives have been thrusting newer and more powerful weaponry into the hands of to protect them against scary ghetto people all the time.

Do we dare even breach the gray area here, reader? Let's say you interpret the Second Amendment as necessary as a citizen's last line of defense against whatever array of government powers are conspiring to kill you. Where's the line on what you can buy, really easily, in the open market? Most would agree that private citizens shouldn't be able to buy tanks, RPGs, land mines, and so forth. They are military-grade weapons. And so the line, established under the assault weapons ban, used to be drawn at certain classes of semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns. That ban expired in 2004, and now there's no clear societal understanding of what private citizens should and shouldn't be able to acquire, and we have these endless stupid vague debates about Freedom From Tyranny vs. Guns Are Bad instead, leading us nowhere.

Not to mention the problem on the police side. If Ice-T and his merry band of conservative bloggers are so worried about the awesome power of the police, then why not solidify restrictions there, too? The Pentagon quietly auctions off insane weaponry to police forces around the country, and SWAT raids over minor infractions of the law are becoming ever more common. Maybe the police should have fewer insane weapons, and then the people would need fewer insane weapons.

But if everyone just wants to continue being brainwashed into funneling more money to the NRA and gun manufacturers, then fine, go ahead and do that. Some of us just don't think it's such a crazy freedom-destroying idea to ban high-capacity magazines for semi-automatic rifles.

Anyway, your Wonkette looks forward to being told that it doesn't know anything about guns and they should all be legal for secret counterintuitive reasons.

[ Hot Air ]