8/31             What's a gun nut?  Someone who believes owning a handgun is
                 a good idea?  -- ilyas
                 \_ you can own 20 guns and not be a gun nut.  you can hunt
                    and target shoot and not be a gun nut.  You can have a
                    gun you carry at all times for protection and not be a
                    gun nut.  A gun nut is someone who *believes* in
                    gun ownership as some sort of philosophical position,
                    not just because they want to kill deer, protect
                    themselves or practice their eye-hand coordination.
                    That's a gun nut.
                    \_ Oh man, I disagree with that.  You can *believe*,
                       as a philosophical position, that gun ownership is a
                       right.  It represents a freedom in this country
                       -- one right amongst many. The notion that believing
                       in something as a philosophical position makes you a
                       'nut' is absurd and belittling to anyone with an
                       education.  While there clearly *is* a line that
                       differentiates a person exercising a constitutionally
                       given right and someone that needs clinical help, your
                       vague definition clearly falls short of the mark.  -POC
                       \_ I think the PP was perhaps a bit harsh in his
                          definition, but I'd define a gun nut as someone who
                          values owning a gun in a way that goes beyond any
                          practical or legal uses for them.  People who believe
                          owning a gun makes them superior in some vague
                          Hobbesian or machismo sense would also fall into
                          this category.
                          \_ What about people who collect guns for aesthetic
                             or historical reasons, like people might collect
                             swords or paintings?  -- ilyas
                       \_ What does POC stand for?
                          \_ Police Officer Candidate
                    \_ Wow, nicely summed up.
                       \_ As long as you don't think about it, yeah.
                    \_ I don't understand this summary.  Are the asterisks
                       somehow significant?  I believe in life, liberty, etc.
                       Does that make me a life nut or a liberty nut?  Of course
                       I believe in all the rights I think I have.  What you
                       are saying is coming across as 'anyone who tries to
                       defend a position I don't agree with is a nut.'  Well,
                       that's great, we found the nut in the conversation, and
                       it ain't me.  Or maybe you just object to people trying
                       to come up with principled justifications for what
                       they believe in, and rather the world was just a giant
                       meaningless compromise between competing interest
                       groups.  That's not nutty, that's sad and depressing.
                         -- ilyas
                \_ alan keyes is a "gun nut"
        \_ It's alarming that to some, adopting the founder's
           beliefs on the possession of guns justifies
           categorization as a 'nut'.  Tyranny is on the horizon, and
           inside every leftist is a tyrant.