Not true at all. If you are polite and
make good points the way Larry Pratt did, Piers gets frustrated and resorts to cheap school-yard ad hominems. That exposes him to anyone with half a brain as having the weaker argument.
If name calling is all it takes to win, it's only in the eyes of people incapable of rational thought themselves.
Taken a step further, someone could also win the debate by pulling out a gun and shooting the other guy.
This is why the "deport Piers Morgan" idea was idiotic as well. Sure, we can't beat him in a civilized discussion, so we'll call in the government thugs to kidnap him.
Rational debate, no matter how well it is done, will not change enough minds to prevent gun control from happening.
It won't, because each person views the debate from one of two lenses: individual rights, or collective rights. While you, as an individualist, believe Shapiro mopped the floor with Morgan, collectivists see it as the other way around. In their twisted collectivist world view, Morgan's asinine idiotic arguments make sense. A lot of sense.
A debate can't fix that.
The bottom line is, if you want to prevent any more gun control, or for that matter any other incremental assault on liberty, the only way to do that is to speak their language:
force. As long as they don't fear your retaliation, they will keep wanting more, and more, and more.
None of us want a civil war. Which is why it's so extremely critical that we make our intentions to defend the 2nd amendment clear.
There's only a few ways this situation can go:
1) They don't think we're serious and they try to take our guns. They succeed, and heralds a new nation of oppression and tyranny.
2) They don't think we're serious and they try to take our guns. Civil war.
3) They know we're serious and they go no further. We succeed.
4) They know we're serious and press it anyway. Civil war.
If you study Just War Doctrine, you'll recognize an obligation to warn your enemy that if they encroach upon your liberties, there will be consequences. If this civil war is to happen, and it very well might, we will need to retain the moral high ground for any victory to be worth having.
We do that by being honest, and upfront, about both our rights, and our intent to defend those rights.
We will resist.