Orlando, Guns And Friends

Photo: candlelight vigil held on the dock in Cherry Grove in remembrance of the Orlando shooting victims

After the Orlando shootings one of my friends, a man who is also a toy train hobbyist, began posting a series of comments on Facebook defending gun ownership including the right to purchase assault style weapons. He is a Libertarian. Libertarians tend to be tolerant on social issues but conservative on economic issues. I knew of his Libertarian views including his gun rights advocacy, but our friendship continued as we focused largely on our toy train hobby. But his recent Facebook posts on gun rights immediately after Orlando were insensitive at best, and they were the last straw for me. I don't want people with those views in my life. I oppose virtually all private gun ownership. The Second Amendment is an anachronism and should be repealed. I unfriended this person on Facebook and I wrote him to tell him why I could no longer continue being close friends with him:

In the face of so much death and suffering I do not have the luxury of agreeing to disagree about guns. Each of us must determine whom we want in our lives. Shared values are a major factor for me in making that determination. Libertarianism, Randian or otherwise, Republican "light," is an ethically bankrupt, debunked fringe ideology of which unfettered gun rights is just one unacceptable tenet. I regret that I cannot in good conscience acquiesce to your personal libertarian values. I am very disappointed that our ideological differences make it impossible for us to continue as good friends. But I cannot and will not paper over such important deeply held views.