On Guns & Gun Control

Let’s talk about guns.  This controversial topic always gets people riled up, and by nature any stance I take will be argued by the proverbial “other side”.  That being said I have quite a few issue to address.  The very first and most crucial is the claim that banning guns from law abiding citizens is somehow going to make the world a safer place, it seems the people that claim this take it on faith that the criminal element will be turning theirs in.  Now, you don’t have to be all that educated to see the problem with this logic.  By banning guns from the law abiding citizens of the United States of America you are unarming them and not the criminals, just in case you miss the point,  the criminals will be armed and society will not.  What could possibly go wrong?  Everyone seems to have heard the phrase “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” I would like to reiterate this.  A gun by itself is not the danger, in fact, it can’t do anything by itself, the person holding it can. 

Now there are many people who will argue that there needs to be more background checks, more security, more regulation, more rules.  No doubt these are the same types of people that likely don’t care about the constant infringement on their right to privacy, they don’t care if they are monitored in everything they do.  Or perhaps they do care, but because it wouldn’t personally affect them I this particular issue they are willing to overlook it.  Here is my opportunity to reiterate one of my favorite quotes, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”- Ben Franklin.   

Now some of you are cheering in your seats, some are scratching their heads, and others are at this moment thinking up what they would consider to be clever retorts.  However, there is much more to this issue. 

I will try not to go on a tangent about the bias of the media here, but can someone explain how every single tragedy involving a gun, legally obtained or not, ends up in the news yet the self-defense stories and others that would take away this vilified image are not?  My guess, what many fail to realize is that the media is politically motivated and right now your Politian’s want to disarm you. They want to disarm you of your weapons and in some ways I think think they want to disarm you of free-thinking. 

Now again some will agree and others will be thinking of arguments, one of which is likely the hot topic in the news now about the shooting in Washington D.C.  According to the Washington post, “Alexis was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun, two law enforcement officials said. One said he also had a shotgun. One official said all the weapons have not been accounted for.  According to ABC News "What the 1986 Firearms Owners' Protection Act did was it made it more convenient for gun buyers," said Kristen Rand, the legislative director at the Violence Policy Center. "That's the road we've been on for a while: The convenience of gun owner always seems to trump the right of victims not to be shot." Some of you are nodding your head right now in agreement, but I cannot agree with this statement. The problem is not, upholding the American peoples right to bear arms, no, the problem is with society.  You might be confused right now if you agreed with Kristen but many of a similar mindset to mine already know where I am going with this.  Accountability. 

The problem is not with the guns, the problem is we live in a society where people are not held accountable, the consequences of any potential actions are not real. There is no fear to act improperly because we have set the precedent that someone or something else is to blame.  If a man shot and killed someone I loved (which has happened) I would not want to overhaul gun laws, I would want that man brought to justice.  I would want that person to pay.  Moreover, I have experienced crime, my own loved ones have been attacked viciously, one was stabbed repeatedly, I didn’t demand something be done about knifes, I wanted those two men brought to justice.  So no I do not agree with Kristen Rand in fact I think in many cases of mass shootings, if others were armed casualties would be minimized. 

Now, some are working on a witty reply and others are happy that someone finally said what they were thinking.  Let me continue on to the concern of terrorism.  I really only have one thing to say.  If you start to live in fear, you have effectively let the terrorist win. Our world is changing and it has become increasingly violent, partially because of decline of accountability and integrity. 

I’m not unwilling to concede to some exceptions, but I do not agree with a ban.  Instead I would require the same process that we have for handguns for these so called “assault rifles.” I reiterate that law abiding citizens have the constitutional right to bear arms and the majority of gun owners is not in danger of committing mass murder.  In fact there have been cases of mass murder not involving guns, some were religious groups that used poison.  We don’t base all religious groups on these few, so why hold all gun owners to the few that have committed crimes, in fact I believe many crimes committed were not from legal gun owners.

I could write much more on this topic and no doubt there are quite a few of you looking to reply, but I will wrap this up.  The bottom line is we should not disarm law abiding citizens of America because there are bad people in the world.  The fact of the matter is there will always be bad people, in fact there will be criminals, and criminals and crazy people are going to get their hands on guns or home-made bombs if that is what they want.  If more law abiding citizens were armed there is a better chance they could prevent the bad people from having too many casualties.  Let me be clear, I am not talking about being a vigilantly, let the police do their job, but in certain situations if no police are present and you are in eminent danger you have the right to act. It is time we hold society and individual accountable for their own actions, it is time to stop blaming the guns, the poor childhood, or the myriad of psychological disorders. It is time to be accountable.