Before I begin this column, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I feel like I have to say this before I write the column since people get their panties in a wad over things like this. If you enjoy your guns, I am by no means saying you are a bad person for enjoying those things.
I know plenty of good people in the NRA. I know plenty of good people who shoot or hunt regularly. Being as how I respect your position. I expect the same.
I am not one of these far left people who think you should be in a straight jacket for wanting to own your guns. If you think I should be in one because I don’t think you should be allowed to own certain weapons, bite a toe because you are probably the person who bitches about the left listening to self serving bias but you yourself do nothing but engulf yourself in FOX news. Therefore, standing next to you, we can probably hear the ocean.
If you want to have a civil conversation, I can do that without using banter as seen above.
What I am hear to talk about are a few arguments that people use to defend why they want to own semi-automatic weapons, assault rifles and weapons of that nature.
Protect Ourselves from a Government Takeover or Other Criminals
It is a play off the second amendment that the people should have the power to form a militia in the event of a government takeover, both foreign or domestic.
First off, this was passed in 1791 when guns took about a minute to reload a single round. We didn’t have the killing machines they have now with assault weapons, automatic weapons (although illegal) and semi-auto weapons.
Second, if a foreign government tries to takeover, the US wouldn’t allow that to happen based on the amount of defense spending. They would crush whoever came in. When is the last time we had an outright war on US soil? No one is that ballsy. Unless ET is flying to our doorstep, we should be ok.
Third, if the US government wants you dead, you’re dead. Your AR-15 isn’t going to save you or anyone else. They have drones that can blow up my entire block as wells as yours. They have nukes that can wipe out entire cities. They have EMPs that can destroy our electronics. Not to mention, the amount of tanks and choppers they have to cause pandemonium is plentiful. If a well regulated military can’t stop them, what makes you think you can, other than maybe arrogance?
They want us dead. We are dead.
As far as defending your home is concerned, I am sure a glock will do just fine. You probably don’t need a ghillie suit and AR-15 to do that.
Guns Don’t Kill People
(Insert eye roll) No, they don’t. They are inanimate objects by definition. However, to say guns don’t give people a certain power over someone who is unarmed and hell, even if they are armed is foolish. It is an easy ticket to punch a death card. I find it funny when people say this because don’t you use them to “protect yourself.” If they are not killing machines, why not just carry a knife? If they are not killing machines, why do the military use weapons similar to guns to AR-15s?
Aside from that, Many times you may hear people talk about drunk drivers killing people. The major difference is they are not getting behind the wheel with the intention of taking someone’s life. Cars are also strictly regulated with things like seat belts, air bags, top speeds, obtaining a license among other things.
It is also illegal to drive drunk. That brings me to the next argument…
Criminals Will Still Find A Way to Obtain the Weapons
I love this one because apparently laws aren’t full proof and automatically mean everyone will abide by them. Someone find me a law that not a single person has broken…don’t worry, I’ll wait.
Laws by definition are to hopefully stop things from happening, but we don’t live in a utopian world where everything goes as planned. However, laws can certainly prevent things from happening more often. If they were to pass a law on the ban of weapons such as the ARs, assault weapons, certain mods and semi auto rifles causing the mass shootings to dip by just 5%, that is a net win in my book.
Imagine if we used the enactment of laws to justify other crimes or obtaining other weapons.
Why stop at assault and semi auto weapons? Why not just make atomic bombs, RPGs, Grenade Launchers (or noob tubes) legal?
What if we used that logic for drugs, money laundering, rape and murder?
You know what guys, criminals will still find a way to get their meth. Gang members are still going to gang bang girls. Why even make it illegal? It sounds ludicrous when you say it out loud.
The funny part about this argument is the fact that most mass shooters purchased their weapons legally anyway.
People Will Then Use Handguns or Shotguns
Take away the semi auto part and I’m sorry, we are not talking about Jason Bourne here. Even with semi-automatic hand guns, unless this person is highly trained and skilled, they aren’t clearing out an entire building unscathed in most cases. You do have outliers such as the Virginia Tech shooting.
Of the top 20 deadliest mass shootings in the US, 9 have been carried out with strictly hand guns or shotguns. Two of those nine were considered in the top 10 deadliest.
Arm All Teachers
What happens when a teacher decides to snap? I don’t know about you, but I had some pretty unstable teachers throughout my life.
What happens when little Tim gets hold of said gun and accidentally or intentionally shoots someone?
What happens when faced with a shooter? Do we really expect our teachers to be trained killers like our military and shoot a threat?
Also, we can’t afford better education systems, but we can push an initiative to arms hundreds or thousands of teachers? K.
My Contention
- Ban ALL Semi Automatic Rifles, Assault Rifles, Regulate Mags
I don’t believe it is necessary to have a stockpile of weapons which can be used to kill loads of people. I understand most hand guns like glocks are semi automatic weapons. Therefore, I would personally want to ban the number of rounds fired per mag to maybe 6 or 8.
- Stricter Background Checks for Obtaining Guns
You can purchase a gun and have it in a month in some cases. I like the initiative of raising the age to 21. I had to sit through 24 hours of training to work in the frozen food section at a Winn Dixie. Shit, if I had to sit through that, make people sit through an x amount of hours on gun safety. Some states do require courses, but make it a federal law.
- Mental Health Checks
If there are any red flags, then obviously evaluate as seen fit. But, this is a slippery slope because ultimately, a narcissistic sociopath can probably pass a psych eval with no issue.
- Shooting Ranges
If you want to shoot assault rifles for fun, I have no problem with people being allowed to do this at a place such as a shooting range.
- Protecting Our Schools
One idea I heard that I did think was fairly decent, although I have heard opposition from teachers. Have ex military personnel stand a post at the schools to give them jobs once they go into the reserves, retire or simply withdraw. I would be ok with my tax dollars going toward salaries for these individuals. Obviously, we wouldn’t want anyone with extreme signs of PTSD.
Hell, even more resource officers. Metal detectors are also something I always thought would be worth thinking about. The main counter to this it makes schools feel unsafe and could hurt public education, which is a fair point.
Conclusion
If you want your guns, then just say you want your guns. Just quit with the bullshit excuses why you want them. As said in the beginning, if someone comes to me and says I just like being able to own an AR-15, fine. I can’t really argue any point against that. At that point, we can agree to disagree.
But to sit here and say you want to be able to protect yourself against a government take over, I will laugh in your face.
If you say you want it to defend your home, use your car or butter knife that you vehemently defend as a viable weapon.
Just stop lying to yourself about why you want them. You want them because you like them. Just like I want video games because I like them. If the government said Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and other violent games were banned because of psychological effects and thought it could adequately save lives, well then I guess my games would be taken away. Oh well.
I have no reason for playing them other than I like them and have fun playing them. Much like you have fun shooting your guns. There are plenty of decent people who use illegal drugs, but those things are still illegal.
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