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| I do not own the photo or any of the guns shown in the photo. |
With guns, new potential laws pertaining to them, second amendment rights, and shootings being in the media recently, being a gun enthusiast might as well be an announcement to carrying a plague...a very virulent, contagious one as well.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you what to think. This is a free country and people have a right to an opinion. I will not demonize those that have a a differing opinion than mine. That said, I decided I would like to express my views on these issues, after having to suffer that of others in silence.
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| I don't own the photo or the gun shown in the photo. |
Death is always a tragedy, especially when violence is involved. This is undeniable and anyone that disagrees will fit right in with the perpetrators of awful incidents such as the shooting at the school in Newton. Because of this incident, there has been a sudden surge of disapproval of gun ownership and a desire to restrict the ownership of certain weapons. While there are many inconsistencies regarding the specifics and there is a great deal of misunderstanding over guns in general, I'm not going to list all of the details and my opinions about each. That is tedious and there are many sources that can be found to explain everything from all kinds of vantage points. I would merely recommend that people, particularly those with no personal encounters with handling a weapon, should look at all the facts before coming to a conclusion.
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| I don't own the photo. I have not personally verified the facts specified in the photo, but I have heard similar claims before. |
One thing I will say is that taking away a couple guns or fiddling with some of the technical details of gun laws will not stop violence. Take a look around you at the moment. Are you in public? Do you know every area near you? If you knew without a doubt (imagine it is with some gun-radar that has yet to be invented) that no one in the vicinity was armed, would you go down a dark alley alone? OR Are you at home? Do you know each of your neighbors and how well? If all you knew was which ones owned guns, would you blindly trust those that don't? Would you enter their homes alone at night with no one knowing your whereabouts, even if it didn't feel right?
I would hope you would know better. I'm sure you've heard: Guns don't kill people, people do (in one phrasing or another). I will tell you one more that I've heard a couple times: No one really needs a gun until they really need one.
For those of your neighbors that have guns and have them legally, they have accepted the reality that the world is an imperfect, dangerous place. They have taken the responsibility of their safety and that of their family into their own hands. This is not to say that law enforcement doesn't play an important roll in the safety of the public. However, there is a limited supply of police officers and they cannot be in multiple places at once. They cannot teleport to you during your hour of need. There is no magic protection that will descend on you when you dial '911' before help arrives.
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Do you realize this consciously and without bias? Do you ever contemplate what you would be able to do in a situation where you were threatened and too far away from aide, with no panic room to enter, no one to hear you scream? If someone attacked you with a knife, rather than a gun, do you believe you would be able to save yourself or your family? How about against multiple assailants armed with only knives? (I should also point out that if they had not been able to acquire a gun legally, it is likely that a criminal wouldn't feel uncomfortable with acquiring a gun illegally, but I digress.)
In the civilized world, in broad daylight, in a public venue people believe they are supposed to be safe. Are we? Of course not. The world is as deadly a place as ever, only people are more complacent and less aware of the fact, whether intentionally or subconsciously. People have been committing acts of violence and murder for centuries, long before even the concept of guns was had. Take a look at history.
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| I do not own the photo. I have not personally verified the facts specified in the photo, but I have heard similar claims before. |
Should children be safe when they go to school? Of course. Will eliminating some guns, even all guns, protect them? Particularly on this issue, people have differing opinions. My opinion--though it feels more a declaration of truth because I believe it that fully--is that no, it will not make them safe. It will just cause other situations to fill the vacuums left behind. People that intend such harm will do so regardless of the method. Do you think just because someone can't access a gun, they will be cowed by that fact? The subject in question is a person that intends to take a life (or multiple lives). When someone has reached that level, that perversion of mind and spirit, will the lack of an inanimate object reform them?
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| I don't own the photo or the gun shown in the photo. |
To me, this is ignorance of the worst kind. It doesn't make me want to rage at the people spouting gun-hating rhetoric. On the other hand, it saddens me. People are so obsessed with the instrument of death that the actual act and the root of it have been widely undiscussed. Sure, there is a moment now and then where someone speaks of mental illness, but when the moment passes they reiterate the same malarkey about guns and restricting them.
You can build a bomb from household products. You can kill with a knife just as you can a gun--also it doesn't run out of bullets and it is considerably easier to aim and conceal.
Hell, has anyone seen after school traffic? It's a nightmare already. What do you think would happen if someone in one of the cars, that wanted to commit murder, saw the kids right when they got let out of class? They might as well have targets painted on them because their killer would be inside the instrument of their tragic deaths. Enough people get killed in car accidents when they are exactly that: accidents. What would happen if one of the other cars on the road, while everyone was going 70 mph, decided this was where they would kill someone and swerved into oncoming traffic?
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| I do not own the photo. I have not personally verified the facts specified in the photo, but I have heard similar claims before. |
I've heard the suggestion that schools should get armed protection. I know many people have mocked the idea, but honestly, I'm all for it. Colleges have security, banks as well, court houses, etc. How many of these places have been targeted recently and how many of these incidents have ended with such horror? Awful as it is, there are sick people in the world who would seek to make an impression by targeting the most innocent subjects of all. They know it will make people pay attention. And what's worse: we already know this! Does that not make it imperative to make sure protection is available? How many more deaths will have to occur before we address at least the issue of protection?
Not to mention, it would help create new jobs, but again I digress.
My family and I own guns. We shoot them recreationally. Would I ever harm a child? I would eat my own limbs before even considering it. Also, my weapons are locked up with cable locks on the guns themselves which are in a gun safe, in a locked trunk. Will this make it hard to get to them in case of an emergency? Yes it would, but do I regret the precautions when I know there will be kids around or people I don't know well enough? (Because you can never truly know a person and when you think you do, they turn into Ted Bundy.) I don't regret having to take precautions. I am informed enough to know that a gun doesn't have to have my permission before being taken from the house.
I am aware that my safety is in my own hands (at the crucial moment) and that the responsibility of a weapon is also in my own hands. I will not be lax in the safety measures of owning a weapon. I can understand compromise, if it is necessary. However, most of the measures in the proposed gun restrictions are useless. I leave it to you to look into it and see for yourself.
Well, I'll start to finish by saying that I wish you all health and safety. If nothing else, I hope people will use the Newton school shooting and all the others to remind them to be grateful of what they have. Anytime you step out your door, there are thousands of ways you can lose everything. Don't fail to appreciate your family and friends while you have them. We are all living in the same world and even in the most remote places on the planet, most of us just want peace and happiness. Make sure your morals are ones you would live for as well as die for. Live life to the fullest and let no regrets trouble you for there is only this moment for you to act and what will you do with it?
So, anyway, I think that'll do. I'm sick enough of hearing myself speak. If anyone has read through to this point, you have my respect and my apologies.
