Security and Gun Control - Part 8

The final component of this topic is the ultimate agenda or desired end of the players in the discussion. This is probably the most enigmatic of the topics because it is generally difficult to know exactly what someone's agenda is. Particularly when they are in politics where, based on their political affiliation, there there is a "right" answer.

The agenda's I came up with are as follows (I added some):

Agendas:
1. Desire to just be safe.
2. Desire to get rid of all guns.
3. Desire to be be able to own any and all weapons as desired.
4. Desire to protect individual's rights.
5. Desire the government to protect everyone from people with guns.

The stated fear of the political right is that the left wants to take all the guns away. While I do think that some on the left want this, I suspect the majority do not. Most liberals, based on what they say and what makes sense, primarily want to be safe, and want the government to protect everyone from people with guns.

The stated fear of the political left is that the right want anyone including criminals and conservative extremists to be able to get machine guns that they generally don't care that people are dying. Some on the right might be those conservative extremists or uncaring, but I suspect that most are not. They probably want to be safe and want to protect individual rights.

The reality of political discourse is that on both the left and right there are minorities of ideologically astute people who understand the philosophical underpinnings of their political views and the logical implementation of them. The majority of both sides however are more practical in their political views and while they do have an ideological basis for their opinions are a little less... hardcore.

Therefore I am optimistic that a majority of the citizens of the United States could come to agreement on reasonable gun control standards that balance public safety with individual rights.

However, I am very pessimistic that such an agreement could be agreed upon due to the institutionalization of the gun control debate. Both the Democrats and Republicans have politicized the subject to the point that neither party can readily negotiate compromises like I have proposed without serious internal uprisings.

However, if level heads prevail and make a lot of noise, maybe a pragmatic solution can be obtained.