Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Saturday, April 21, 2007 11:13:28 PM
This guy is trying to tell us that
guns should should be done away with. Guess we shouldn't expect much less from a San Francisco lefty.
Let's take a look at a few of his arguments;
But let this be known: Guns are also, quite clearly, something that could exit the human experience entirely and we would, very simply, only be the better for it. Much, much better. Oh yes we would.
Very simply, as long as humans inhabit this planet and we don't one day learn to selectively erase memory, guns are a fact of life. There are no two ways about it.
Guns are far too easy to obtain. Gun fetishism is far too prevalent and glamorized and legitimized in the States. Guns are often easier to get hold of than a driver's license and we don't even perform instant background checks, and in places like Texas it's now easier than ever not only to own a gun, but the state's newly expanded gun laws mean it's A-OK to shoot and kill someone for pretty much looking at you sideways, and if you do, not only is it unlikely you will go to jail for it, many Texans will actually applaud.
Guns are not so easy to legally obtain. You absolutely have to pass a background check. I have personally seen a customer turned away at a gun show for not passing. Guns are a right and should be able to be purchased at a store. But it's not like picking up a gallon of milk, as alluded to above. I'm certainly not against the background check, but it would be nice to have it run a little smoother because I have waited one to three hours to get it done. Anyway, buying a gun is not easier than getting a drivers license. Illegals and people with criminal records get driver's licenses all day long. They conveniently get them at the customer-friendly DMV, one of about three in the entire city, and two people working at each one, and their hours of operation are 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., re-openning at 1:00 P.M., closing at 4:00 P.M. Closed on Weekends. And you want to trust the government to protect you, well, fine.
As far as Texas goes, laws to obtain a gun are little different then any other state. If you shoot someone in Texas with out reasonable cause of protecting your life, YOU WILL BE PROSECUTED. And in the case of a justifiable shooting you might hear some applause, because you took responsibility for your own safety and security.
But even the obvious fact that no new gun-control laws are likely to emerge hasn't stopped the pro-gunners from tossing up what is easily my favorite pro-gun argument of all time, one that's popped back up on blogs and forums and in right-wing columns all over the Net in response to VT, like some sort of cute, thuggish mantra of happy cancerous violence.
It goes like this: If only more people had guns, no one would get shot. If only everyone was armed and everyone was packing heat and everyone knew everyone else could kill them at a moment's notice, why, no one would dare shoot each other for fear of getting killed themselves before they even had a chance to enjoy their own murderous rage.
In other words, the solution to the too-many-guns-too-easily problem? Even more guns.
Obviously, there are people who say this, but they are about 0.001% of the gun owners population. The truth is, most people know that only a handful of people will get a concealed carry license, and even if they do, some places like the VT campus wouldn't allow them anyway. But if another incident like what happened on the VT campus were to happen again, the chances are far better that someone may be able to stop it before it becomes 32 people dead, or 50 people. Better yet, why not have armed campus security trained in this type of situation. That's certainly better than having no way to fight back until the police arrive, which so far in these instances has been too late. I am not blaming the police , they cannot be everywhere all the time. But a good first response can be on site, whether it be an armed citizen or armed security.
More to the point: If the professors and students at Virginia Tech just so happened to carry their own swell Glock 9mm in their backpacks or in their purses just like insane sullen loner Cho Seung-Hui, maybe he would've been less likely to go on that rampage because, gosh golly, he'd surely know he'd be quickly shot dead by 100 trigger-ready students as soon as he fired the first shot.
It's a free country, so it's each citizen's choice to get their license. Most won't, and that's okay. Not all people want that responsibility, besides the fact that carrying a weapon is not for the light-hearted nor is it a game. The last thing any CCW permit holder wants to do is to have to draw their weapon. Believe it when I say that with the responsibility of carrying a firearm comes the responsibility of being held accountable for your actions. My training instructor for my CCW permit is a retired Tactical Handgun Trainer for the F.B.I. in Quantico, Virginia. He stressed more than once that the first thing you should always do is draw your cell phone, dial 911 and let the police handle the situation. Only if you have no other choice, when your life or someone elses is in immediate danger, do you draw your weapon.
I love this line of thinking. It's like bashing your own skull with a brick and calling it intellectual stimulation.
Hell, it worked great for the Cold War, didn't it? Every major nation enjoys a grudging, caveman-esque respect for each other's massive nuke stockpile and whoever can annihilate the world the most times over gets the most power and we all live happily ever after in a brutal, anxious, fear-based society, some juvenile vision of a macho Wild West that never really existed. Beautiful.
You know what? It did work for the Cold War. I rest my case.
...bitter Second Amendment misinterpreter and NRA lobbyist in the land.
Just thought I would show where his logic is coming from. If you actually read the federalist papers, you would see that guns are thought of as essential to every man and head of household. As important as your home or your life. The framers knew without them you could not protect yourself from harm. They also knew that the goverment needed a check against them. What better than an armed public. I suggest reading An Armed America by Clayton E. Cramer. Not only will you get a accurate analysis of the framers thoughts on the 2nd Amendment, but you get a little insight on some interesting authors who believe what this guy does and how they have twisted the facts to achieve this kind of thinking. And they did not get away with it.
It would not be instantaneous. It would not be easy. But slowly, as manufacturing largely ceased and gun shows shut down and fewer and fewer new firearms entered the channel and the black market slowly dried up from lack of decent supply, and as the upcoming generation simply wouldn't know a world where guns were prevalent and easy and stupid as paint, well, guns and the numb ultraviolence they inspire would disappear within a single generation, maybe two.
Let's interprete this so what would REALLY happen could be seen. It would not be easy. Through bitter and costly legal battles, millions would be lost trying to defend our constitutional right to bear arms. Then the gun indusrty would be shut down. More than likely that day. Thousands would lose their jobs. The police would spend months looking through our private residences for illegal firearms. Of course we would have to allow that to happen by law, so you can kiss another one of your personal rights away. Millions of hours of overtime would have to be paid to do this. Inevitably someone would get killed in that process. The black market would get LARGER not smaller. As with alcohol in the twenties and drugs today, just because its illegal does not mean it will "disappear". Finally, violence would not change, it would just find new weapons, as was the case in Australia. Maybe not guns, but knives, swords, baseball bats, whatever it would take.
I know, it would ruin the all-American fun of shooting. I realize a beloved American hobby would have to be replaced by, well, roughly 10 thousand other options. I know it would infuriate countless collectors and responsible gun owners who merely appreciate the craftsmanship, the gun-maker's art, the simple joy of shooting deadly weapons into controlled targets and who have zero urge to kill anything, ever. I know.
But, well, so what? Giving up such a rather hollow, morally indefensible, outdated pleasure seems a tiny price to pay for the end result of a dramatically less violent America, a less suspicious, reactionary worldview, a nation not shot through with an undercurrent of fear and blood-drenched headlines and childish notions of angry, armed retaliation.
Yes, to some it is a hobby, to most it's for protection. It's brings them a level of security that they would otherwise not have. And you would take that from them. You would be a fool to think that in this country, another gun law would be the end of all violence.
But heck, it really should be no problem just handing my gun over to the government just like all those citizens in Africa do so when the next tyrant comes along he doesn't have to worry about an armed citizenry. Never trust your government that far. EVER. When we give up our arms we give up our protection against those who can or could hurt us. I like having the ability to protect myself. I do not expect the government to do it for me. That does not mean I hate the government, because I don't. But I do like having the check and balance system. Our guns keep that balance.
I don't usually write this long of article, but I felt this was important. Some of us out there want to make guns disappear. And that's fine. It's a free country and this country was built on a back and forth discussion of the issues. But let's be serious. Let's not make jokes and take it so lightly. This issue is not as much a hobby as a right. Let's not give anymore away.
Guns in the wrong hands can be a bad thing. Just as freedom is not free, neither is gun ownership. As citizens we need to be aware that guns are only tools, bad people make them into deadly weapons. But to keep our arms there will always be evil things done with them. The tragedy at VT is one example. And the sickness of that situation makes some of us want to leap to drastic measures, and try to end something that the majority of people in this county excercise...Gun Ownership. But remember, guns can magnify a bad situation, but at the core of it is a bad, mentally ill or insane human being. That is one thing that will never "disappear". Whether we have guns or not, that will never change. Maybe we need to find the source of the human element to it. I believe values, human values, play a bigger part in gun violence than the actual gun. The gun did what was intended, to fire. The person behind it aims and pulls the trigger. And that is where the BLAME belongs. Not on the gun.