This will probably cause a rift on both sides of the
fence. And it is not because I do not
know which side to sit on, but because I understand the duality of the
problem. I have to start off with “I own
a gun!” That’s right! I own a gun.
I don’t have it for the purpose of home protection, I don’t have it to
carry with me underneath my shirt in case I am involved in a situation that
requires me defending myself or others, and I do not have it for the purpose of
robbing someone or causing a situation that will require the police taking my
life to save others. Nope, none of those
reasons. I have one because it is fun to
go to the range and fire off rounds into a target. It is a personal competition to see how good I
can shoot and how I can improve on my abilities. I do not ever want to have to use it to
defend myself or someone else. I do not
ever want to take the life of another.
That is not my purpose.
Now on the other side, I think it is insidious to collect
guns for the purpose of perpetuating a mass shooting or killing any innocent
human beings for any reason. And I think
that there should be regulations in place to better control the distribution of
these weapons that are built solely for the purpose of killing as many people
in a short amount of time. I don’t know
what that would look like. I have some
ideas, but they are not, nor is any plan, foolproof.
Now for those of you who do not want to bring about any
legislation that would curb your right to own guns, you might be tempted to
pigeon-hole me right now, but you must continue reading…
We have left the government in control of too much of our
lives. Even though many people cannot
see it, our rights as American Citizens have diminished over the decades to
where we don’t even realize that they have been taken away. Our right to choose what is best for us is
pretty much extinct. About the only
things that we can claim as freedom is the ability to go to work, make money,
and pay the taxes that we owe. Did you
ever wonder why tax reduction plans usually do not have a significant benefit
for the middle income earner? That is
because if we are busy at the grind, trying to provide for our families, we are
not engaged in actively pursuing our freedoms.
I hate that there are crazies out there that are able to get
hold of weapons that can produce the carnage seen in Las Vegas. But I see the point of the avid gun
supporter. The thing is that very few of
you will actually say what it is that bothers you the most about gun
control. I have heard it a time or two,
but not as often as I would have thought… You don’t TRUST our Government. Like I mentioned earlier…many rights have
disappeared, and honestly, if that one disappears, there will be even less
freedom.
Now switching back to the gun regulation sector…there is not
a scenario where we would become like Great Britain. It is way too late for that. I agree with my right leaning brethren when
they say that most (or better said the majority) of gun owners are law abiding
citizens. They are people that would
rise to help a fellow citizen in distress or protect a child from a predator. There is no reason to take their guns.
Yes I think we need sensible gun laws, but who will agree on
what that is without fear of either not being heard, or fear of losing their rights. Unfortunately we cannot know the minds of
people that may potentially snap. And we
writhe with pain to think that 59 people died and hundreds more are
wounded. It is tragic. As a human I am appalled. But let’s break it down. Life is sacred and the life of one person
being tragically taken in an event like this is equal to the multitude of lives
lost. Why? Because that Mother, that Father, that Son,
or Daughter is lost to their loved ones forever. That one family will deal with the tragedy
forever. So if a person were to ‘snap’
and decide to do what this man did, if he had not automatic weapons, but
only a handgun, or only a knife, or only
a bow and arrow, a broken bottle, a lead pipe, whatever….and he takes a life,
or two, or three, there will be that
family somewhere that will always be touched by it. And there will always be others sympathetic to
the families of those lives lost.
The shootings touched me, the loss of life touched me, but
not as deeply as it would have had someone I loved been taken. Guns don’t kill people…people kill
people. People do not need guns to kill
people. There are a lot of Americans
that own guns, assault rifles, etc. They
are not out committing crimes with those weapons. Do they need them? Probably not!
Should they have them? I don’t
know. Should we leave it up to the
government to decide? Well, they do not
have a great track record of protecting our rights…you decide!
