Should we legalize the following?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

to the Yes to legalization of assault weapons.

Considering that they currently are legal in the US and a bunch of other countries like Switzerland and Finland, what it so ridiculous about that? You can disagree with it but I don't see how it warrants the eye rolling.

Adultery: No
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: No
Polygamy: No
Straight Monogamous Marriage: No
Prostitution: No if organized, Yes if personal
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: Some
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: Some
Explosives: Some
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes

Despite the source, I am actually pretty close to agreement with this.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

to the Yes to legalization of assault weapons.

Considering that they currently are legal in the US and a bunch of other countries like Switzerland and Finland, what it so ridiculous about that? You can disagree with it but I don't see how it warrants the eye rolling.

Well, if that's effectively war weapons of the kind of AK-47 or stuffs like that, which I assumed, well all what is stronger than an hand-gun or an hunting riffle, I keep my eye rolling, no matter if it is legal elsewhere, it would express the way in which I express my disagreement.

Well, I support a ban of firearms in the civilian society as a general principle (except a few exceptions like maybe hunting and security purposes for pragmatic issues) then an eye rolling is appropriate for me here.

The eye rolling goes for explosives too, those should be delivered under authorization for precise known purposes.

[Vepres]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: Yes
Polygamy: Hell No
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: No
Gambling: Leave it to individual cities and states
Assault Weapons: Yes-ish
Explosives: No
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes

[Хahar 🤔]

Gambling: Leave it to individual cities and states

That doesn't answer the question. You're not a politician running for federal office.

[Frodo]

Adultery: Yes

Pornography: Yes to adult porno, but no to child porno.

Sodomy: Yes

Gay Marriage: No Yes

Polygamy: No

Prostitution: No Yes

Cigarettes: Yes

Alcohol: Yes

Marijuana: Yes

Hard Drugs: No Yes

Gambling: Yes

Assault Weapons: Yes

Explosives: Yes

Pistols: Yes

Rifles: Yes

Pretty much the same, though I now favor legalizing prostitution, hard drugs, as well as gay marriage.  

[Associate Justice PiT]

to the Yes to legalization of assault weapons.

Considering that they currently are legal in the US and a bunch of other countries like Switzerland and Finland, what it so ridiculous about that? You can disagree with it but I don't see how it warrants the eye rolling.

Well, if that's effectively war weapons of the kind of AK-47 or stuffs like that, which I assumed, well all what is stronger than an hand-gun or an hunting riffle, I keep my eye rolling, no matter if it is legal elsewhere, it would express the way in which I express my disagreement.

Well, I support a ban of firearms in the civilian society as a general principle (except a few exceptions like maybe hunting and security purposes for pragmatic issues) then an eye rolling is appropriate for me here.

The eye rolling goes for explosives too, those should be delivered under authorization for precise known purposes.

     Assault weapons is a silly, arbitrary criterion to ban weapons with certain features that are no more dangerous than similar weapons that lack those features. Assault weapons are legal in the United States, but assault rifles, which include the war weapons you refer to, are still illegal. Someone, I think dead0man, made an edifying post a while back on the silliness of banning assault weapons. I might look for it again.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

to the Yes to legalization of assault weapons.

Considering that they currently are legal in the US and a bunch of other countries like Switzerland and Finland, what it so ridiculous about that? You can disagree with it but I don't see how it warrants the eye rolling.

Well, if that's effectively war weapons of the kind of AK-47 or stuffs like that, which I assumed, well all what is stronger than an hand-gun or an hunting riffle, I keep my eye rolling, no matter if it is legal elsewhere, it would express the way in which I express my disagreement.

Well, I support a ban of firearms in the civilian society as a general principle (except a few exceptions like maybe hunting and security purposes for pragmatic issues) then an eye rolling is appropriate for me here.

I'm not a gun nut and really don't care if they are legal, but considering I currently live where one can buy an AK-47 and there are not crazy street wars outside involving them (and in fact, not even a single murder at all in Minneapolis using such a weapon all year and as far back as I can remember as well), I'm not all that concerned about them being legal.

The eye rolling goes for explosives too, those should be delivered under authorization for precise known purposes.

Which currently basically is the current law in the US and basically everywhere, it's not like you can walk into a store and buy claymore mines. Explosives used in mining and commercial demolition and the like are fully legal and sold exactly as you state.

[Free Palestine]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: Yes
Polygamy: Yes
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: No
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: Yes
Explosives: No
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes

[Ebowed]

I oppose banning adultery, pornography, sodomy, gay marriage, prostitution, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, hard drugs, and gambling.

I'm not sure I see the benefit in the government recognizing polygamous relationships.

Rifles and pistols could be obtained with a permit, I suppose, if someone owns a farm or some other suitable reason.

[Mint]

Adultery: Yes. Especially if people actually consent to it.
Pornography: Yes unless it's kiddie porn/bestiality/whatever. There's no proof this causes violence to women and saying it degrades 'all of them' is an absurd argument.
Sodomy: Yes, even the people who disapprove have to admit a society that could actually enforce this isn't one any of us would want to live in.
Gay Marriage: Yes, there's no rational reason not to. That said I think government should get out of marriage. People should be able to determine their own benefits, property rights, etc. on an individual basis without arbitrary favoritism like tax breaks.
Polygamy: See above pretty much.
Prostitution: No, from what I've seen legalization doesn't curb human trafficking or abuse. Look at the Netherlands, Australia, etc.
Cigarettes: Yes, reluctantly. Get rid of sin taxes on them too while you're at it, all they do is hurt the poor and encourage black market trafficking.
Alcohol: Yes and get rid of the 21 year drinking age, it's counter productive not to mention hypocritical.
Marijuana: Yes. The fact that this is illegal while tobacco is not only legal but receiving subsidies is insane.
Hard Drugs: Lean Yes. I've seen nothing to indicate the war on drugs has done anything other than make coke, heroin, etc. cheaper while crowding our prisons and wasting time and money that could be used to combat other more serious crimes. At minimum decriminalize them.
Gambling: No if you mean casinos, yes to poker or whatever. That said it's a state issue and some areas might fare much better than others.
Assault Weapons: Yes. This is a stupid issue, anyone whose bothered to do their homework on this issue should know by now that assault weapons are basically just guns with scary looking features. There's plenty of rifles that are much faster and more lethal yet don't meet the arbitrary requirements for the original AWB.
Explosives: Yes but regulated obviously... You know, the status quo.
Pistols: Yes. I don't see how anyone can look at the 2nd amendment and reasonably conclude that these don't fall under it. The only arguments I've seen basically cite 19th century precedents for regional regulation but if you're going to use that logic you have to endorse state churches and all sorts of other things we'd find repulsive.
Rifles: Yes. See above.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: Yes
Polygamy: Undecided
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: No
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: No
Explosives: No
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Lean yes

[Marokai Backbeat]

I should note that I don't really care about gun rights at all and if an individual state wanted to ban them, power to them as far as I care. I never have and likely never will handle a gun.

[Mint]

I should note that I don't really care about gun rights at all and if an individual state wanted to ban them, power to them as far as I care. I never have and likely never will handle a gun.

I can actually see the argument for banning handguns on a practical level since those are used for most crimes with guns.. I just acknowledge it's politically impossible and doesn't set a great precedent even if we could.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Adultery: yes
Pornography: yes
Sodomy: yes
Gay Marriage: yes
Polygamy: yes
Prostitution: yes
Cigarettes: yes
Alcohol: yes
Marijuana: yes
Hard Drugs: depends
Gambling: depends
Assault Weapons: yes
Explosives: depends
Pistols: yes
Rifles: yes

[Free Palestine]

Mint, I think you mean the Second Amendment. 

[Mint]

Mint, I think you mean the Second Amendment. 

Yeah sorry, working on 5 papers.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Prostitution: No, from what I've seen legalization doesn't curb human trafficking or abuse. Look at the Netherlands, Australia, etc.

What does that have to do with some couple grand a night call girl or massage student who doesn't mind jerking off clients she meets off Craigslist?

[Mint]

We've already seen the failure of trying to license and regulate sex workers and where they work many times over. In Australia as I mentioned the number of brothels there account for only about 10% of the estimated sex market going by the University of Queensland Working Group on Human Trafficking's study. In the Netherlands it's even worse, the government estimates about 96% of the sex workers there are working illegal.

Basically, the problem is that for everyone that agrees to go through all the paper work, background checks, etc. there's tons of others who just don't care or already were brought here outside of the system anyway. You might have a few high end call girls or something that are legit/really don't mind it but most of the people doing it don't fit that profile.

Also there's sexual harassment laws to consider. Case in point, if I run a massage parlor or something and every girl working for me is giving a happy ending, what do you think that's going to do to the market? If the law is lax, then all of my competitors are going to do the same thing and sex will become a de-facto requirement for the job. That's pretty much the definition of hostile work environment.

[Lunar]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: Yes*
Polygamy: Yes*
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: Yes
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: Yes
Explosives: No
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes

*Note that I don't think the government should be involved at all in recognizing this marriage and not recognizing that one.  We should leave it to the churches.

interesting bumped thread from five years ago.  Despite my wildly flailing ideology, I don't think I disagree with this fundamental assessment from my teenage years all that much.  I have more nuanced perspectives on some of these than before, but on the question on whether or not there should be criminal legalities associated with these...I'm more or less the same.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

We've already seen the failure of trying to license and regulate sex workers and where they work many times over. In Australia as I mentioned the number of brothels there account for only about 10% of the estimated sex market going by the University of Queensland Working Group on Human Trafficking's study. In the Netherlands it's even worse, the government estimates about 96% of the sex workers there are working illegal.

Basically, the problem is that for everyone that agrees to go through all the paper work, background checks, etc. there's tons of others who just don't care or already were brought here outside of the system anyway. You might have a few high end call girls or something that are legit/really don't mind it but most of the people doing it don't fit that profile.

OK but then what's the point of arresting call girls too? This whole thing could be resolved by Canada's type of law where there are no laws against prostitution itself but all associated activities are illegal. This means the only ones who are legal are the high end call girl types, the streetwalkers, brothels and pimps are all still banned. Not that I think it's the best situation but it's better than the one here, you wouldn't have crap like that woman arrested in Pennsylvania for offering sex for World Series tickets on Craigslist.

Also there's sexual harassment laws to consider. Case in point, if I run a massage parlor or something and every girl working for me is giving a happy ending, what do you think that's going to do to the market? If the law is lax, then all of my competitors are going to do the same thing and sex will become a de-facto requirement for the job. That's pretty much the definition of hostile work environment.

Except that has not happened in Minnesota, where highly sexualized massages are legal as long as you finish things yourself instead of the masseuse, and even places that do cross over the law are generally ignored. There's a massage parlor/brothel within walking distance of the main Minneapolis PD station. And it's been open for over 20 years. And that's not even started on some of the strip clubs...Almost the only people who get arrested for prostitution in Minneapolis are streetwalkers/solicitors of them. And yet these type of places still make up the vast minority of these type of businesses.

[useful idiot]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: I think marriage should be a purely religious institution, ala libertarianism
Polygamy: No
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: No
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: No
Explosives: No
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes

[Earth]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: Yes
Polygamy: Yes
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes
Hard Drugs: Yes
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: Too Vague
Explosives: No
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes

[Magic 8-Ball]

Adultery: Yes
Pornography: Yes
Sodomy: Yes
Gay Marriage: Yes[1]
Polygamy: Yes[1]
Prostitution: Yes
Cigarettes: Yes
Alcohol: Yes
Marijuana: Yes[2]
Hard Drugs: Yes[2]
Gambling: Yes
Assault Weapons: Maybe[3]
Explosives: Yes
Pistols: Yes
Rifles: Yes







[1]The government shouldn't be in the marriage business to begins with.
[2]Should be regulated like alcohol.
[3]Do rocket and grenade launchers count as assault weapons?  If so, then not them.  Then again, I hear that you can have a lot of fun in Cambodia with rocket launchers...

[Lunar]

I don't know what I was thinking four years ago (I certainly don't like the items I chose or how I chose to phrase them) but I'm pretty sure grenade launchers count as "explosives"

[Continential]

all yes