Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Give me your guns?

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!

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