I hate that we have a flood of guns in this country. This country is so inundated with guns that we have shootings in elementary schools, for God's s sake. This is absolutely crazy that you can't trust that your children will be safe despite the amazing safety conscientiousness of the schools.
It's no surprise that a smart guy like neuroscience graduate student James Holmes is able to put together a deadly arsenal. But people without a lot of skills like Jared Loughner and Adam Lanza, or the shooter in my hometown, Jiverly Wong, have had the examples, guns, and ammo available so they could execute mass shootings too. There's something incredibly wrong in society that so many people have the same dream--to shoot as many people as possible, and they also have the means to fulfill the dream. If the NRA and gun owners don't think that is a huge problem that they have hugely contributed to, they are in denial and many innocent lives are lost due to that denial. Stop it already!
Now for the liberals' turn. I hate that liberals try to impose a gun-free utopia despite all the evidence that crime and criminals have no intention of disappearing or disarming! They deny the existence of the responsible gun owner, and the legitimate right to own guns for hunting, self-protection, and sport. Their dreams that there will be no guns has spawned the fear and hyperbolic rhetoric among NRA-types that the government would confiscate guns, and therefore you had better arm yourself to the teeth. This would have been a time to take a "live-and-let-live" approach, but liberals didn't. Their advocacy backfired in a huge way because they wanted to impose values rather that let the world be what is truly is--diverse.
But now I have a third target--the NRA and the gun manufacturers who preyed on gun owner worries to ramp up sales. Enjoy your blood-stained profits.
Image: nj1015.com
Update 5/6/13. A very long personal explanation of why gun owners don't and shouldn't trust gun control advocates.
1 comment:
Buy, MP, "live and let live," or more exactly "don't say anything to cause trouble for Democrats in gun culture areas," is what got us into this mess, isn't it? I'm afraid this just isn't one of those things that yields readily to "go your own way." The issue is too fundamental, the differences between America and nations with strong gun laws far too stark, the issues far too clear. People have compared this to the abortion debate, and I suppose their is a great deal of truth in that.
Now, there are, on the surface, ready grounds for compromise. A national gun registry comes to mind. Perhaps stiff penalties for persons who do not insure their guns (leading to intense pressure on insurance companies to insist on safety and security precautions) and a strong crackdown on the person-to-person market. Ammunition restrictions are another. Better security and mental health services are another.
But we will not have that, I'm afraid. Conservatives will see anything as a threat. They will say, "It's laying the groundwork for taking away our rights. Don't tell us it won't be done! We are sick of people dealing away our fundamental interests." Liberals will say "These are laughable compromises unworthy of a so-called civilized country. Other nations have dealt firmly with this scourge, and so can we. And no whining to us about how different America is, we are sick of the excuses and the cowardice."
So, everybody is sick, no one is willing to make a deal, because no one who is really interested in this issue (a minority of the population, but that is any issue) believes the other side has a moral or logical leg to stand on.
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