To my CONSERVATIVE *AND* to my LIBERAL friends.
In today’s media driven, knee jerk society – you are BOTH missing the point. Yes, perhaps the laws need more power; however, self protection IS a fundamental right.
Neither side is wrong, but neither side has the answer; and here is why.
There are other countries in the world that have more liberal Gun laws (meaning more people can have guns) and more conservative gun laws (prohibiting gun ownership). Yes, this goes against what Americans label as Liberal and Conservative – but put your damned labels aside, and look at the numbers.
Other countries with more strict gun laws do not have this problem.
Other countries with more liberal gun laws do not have this problem.
If the real issue isn’t right in front of your face, let me spell it out for you.
The PROBLEM isn’t in the laws; it’s in our society.
Didn’t want to hear that? Too bad. BUT, let me explain.
From a PURELY legislative standpoint, BOTH sides are right. The Second Amendment clearly gives all citizens the Right to Bear arms; whether those arms are firearms, crossbows, swords, etc… we have a Constitutional RIGHT to be able to defend ourselves (and the implication was to defend ourselves with equal force; not to try and defend our homes with Swords against a nuclear attack, or to trounce our enemies with Atomic grenades when they come at us with a knife; some degree of sensibility is simply a given).
That being said: Some people take it too far. What the HELL are you afraid of? We’ve had more peacetime on our own soil that any Kingdom or State that has preceded us. So you choose to live in a prepetual state of readiness?
Alright – I’m OK with that. And I appreciate your vigilance.
If you REALLY take the time to educate yourself, you will realize that, in EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE of MASS GUN VIOLENCE in American, (and probably a high percentage of the non-mass instances) the shooters were FRICKEN NUTS! They really were – wouldn’t you have to be?
Look at the facts: instances of one on one gun violence are usually driven by (1) domestic violence, (2) drug related violence, (3) General crime. No where in this do we have common criminals, or even PROFESSIONAL criminals going out to commit mass murder. For the Common person, hurt and pain too often turns to violence, and if a gun is present… there ya go (whether the gun or the shooter was legal and licensed isn’t relevant). For the professional criminal, they don’t want the level of scrutiny that comes with a mass shooting.
So what is left?
Those who are broken, un-stable, sad, lonely, radicalized; in short, those who SOCIETY needs to help. Because if we don’t, they will do EXACTLY THE KIND OF SHIT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!
But we don’t help, do we?
No, only once it’s too late, only once that Man or Woman has BROKEN and lived in a Mental HELL long enough to come to the conclusion that EVERYONE, or even certain someones… Christians, Muslims, Blacks… (that wasn’t too long ago, was it?)… Mexican.. whatever. They create targets, but even killing the targets doesn’t fix their pain, their hurt… it doesn’t fix the trigger that turned them into mass murderers.
Now, some of you, and rightly so, may ask, “Why should I give a damn about some psycho that killed X number of people?”
Its a good question; but my first response is this; What if you could reverse time, and see that ‘murderer’ as something else; as a person who’d not yet harmed anyone, but had become so truly broken that they were getting ready to harm others.
Too many would say “Kill the Bastard”; but he’s not a bastard yet, is he? He’s only thought of committing the crimes you’d kill him for. So that isn’t a very Christian ideal, is it?
So what would you do? Try to change them? Help them thru the hurt that broke their Humanity to this end?
I’d say we should work on prevention of the crime, much more so than prevention of the tool used in the crime.
I’ll not say this often, but consider this; I’m not an ignorant man. If I wanted to kill LOTS of people, I wouldn’t personally use a gun. There are far too many other ways to kill the masses. And if I *DID* want to use a gun – hell with the laws; and if the laws did prevetn me from buying a gun, I’d either get one illegaly, or MAKE ONE MYSELF.
In short, legislation is not the answer.
That being said, what could help?
Perhaps, we need to find a better way to identify these shooters sooner, but that takes intervention from not only Law Enforcement, but from Friends and Family as well; it takes weeding out the asshole who reports someone they are angry with, just to frak them over; it take a change in our mentality as a society, where we no longer just focus on ourselves, what *WE* want, and our own goal. We have to learn what our European counterparts hav e learned, and balance the needs WE have as individuals, with the needs that our shared SOCIETY has. And this teaching has to start early. By the age of three, the self-identity of most children is set; so have you not only taught them self respect, but respect for others as well? Have you lead by example?
Or have you said one thing, and been a selfish ass in your actions?
They learn by what they see at a YOUNG age:
Our society in America is broken. Whether you believe that is because of politics, religion, media, etc… you are all right, and you are all wrong.
It comes down to MORALS.
I’ve known Christians who thought they were saints; some of them were, but others weren’t worth a crap; same for people of every other religion. I’ve known Atheist who were kind and giving, and those who were self-centered; no matter the label a person takes, it is their overall ACTIONS that tell you the truth.
We do not need to legislate gun control; we need to find a way to BETTER *WHO WE ARE* as a people, so we can find these offenders, these murderers, before they act, and help them fix what is broken within THEM.
Until we do that, we will still be reliving Columbine, Sandy Creek, Aurora, Oregon…
how long do you want this list to be?
Gun control is NOT the answer; not in this country. But we MUST change how we identify and assist the people who do these horrible things, without EVER FORGETTING those who lost their lives, so we could wake up and change ourselves.
A friend of mine replied:
There will never be a good leader b/c they are all politician
I answered this:
then WE have to lead; the people who’ve made the biggest difference in our society have rarely been politicians; they’ve been preachers, lawyers, and regular people.
We have to stop asking those “in charge” what is right, and just DO what is right; not just for ourselves, but for us all.
She responded: after all we are working under a lobbyist from Washington DC……..
Lobbying (also lobby) is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in a government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies.
My answer:
my dear – I KNOW; believe me, I understand, and you are NOT wrong.
That being said, legal changes come from legislation; Societal changes come from PEOPLE. We do not need a Government telling us how to feel, react or respond; reaching out to people who may create a violent crime should not be a MANDATE;
we shouldn’t need that to be the law, should we?
Shouldn’t we just try to help because its the right thing to do, instead of burying our heads in the sand and saying ‘It’s not my problem”?
The fix for this problem does not start with laws; they only infringe on those who obey them. The sad souls who do these crimes don’t give a damn what the laws are; and in our ‘capitalist’ society, there will always be someone willing to sell a firearm to whomever has the right amount of money – laws be damned.
The only way to really combat this is to make us a society of individuals again, instead of individuals who happen to live in a society.
And it starts right here – right now. With everyone who reads this and understands.
Or it goes no where.
