This
is long and I've written about our nation's gun problem before. I
debated whether or not to post it in two installments but decided to
just get it over with. Read it or don't.
The
NRA has convinced a large segment of the population that the only
thing standing between themselves and chaos is a good guy with a gun,
preferably themselves but that's why we have a police force. That's
their job. The NRA's
creed of an armed society is a polite society has filled this country
with guns. As it stands now, there are enough guns in the population
for every man, woman, and child. And still the gun nuts don't feel
safe.
This
is what it has come to. With the exception of the instability in the
Middle East, the drug wars in Central America, and some rogue African
nations, America is the most dangerous country in the world and the
danger comes from our own citizens. You wouldn't expect the biggest
1st World nation to also be the most dangerous. But we
are. Now instead of just worrying about being killed by the police
with their tendency to shoot first and ask questions later, we have
to worry about every stranger on the street as well.
Cases in point...
1. A
man witnesses a carjacking and whips out his gun and starts shooting.
He does not stop the carjacking and shoots the victim in the head
instead. Then he gathered up all his shell casings and fled the
scene.
2. A
woman witnesses a man coming out of Home Depot being chased by a
store employee. The man gets in his car and starts to flee the
scene. She whips out her gun and starts shooting at the fleeing car.
She does not, in fact, know whether this man has shoplifted anything
and yet she takes it upon herself to shoot at him instead of just
taking down his car license and a description of the vehicle to give
to police.
In
both these instances, which happened in one week, these citizens
appointed themselves judge, jury, and executioner. In the Home Depot
case, she didn't even know if a crime had been committed. And since
when did we give start giving the death penalty for theft? They are
lucky they didn't kill anyone (the head shot victim lived). The
woman could have killed a child in that car or the driver whose
moving car would have then careened into some other family or she
could have just as easily shot one of the many people who were in the
parking lot.
This
is called vigilantism and it is against the law. Just because you
have a license to carry does not mean you can whip out your gun and
start firing away anytime you want to. The law is very clear about
when you can use a gun to protect yourself or someone else and theft,
not even of your own property, isn't one of the reasons. You can see
a thief carrying your fancy TV or whatever out of your house and you
still cannot legally shoot and kill that person.
Did
you know that the only time a gun buyer is subjected to the briefest
background check is when they buy a gun from a gun store? Once a
person owns that gun, they can sell it to anybody they want as long
as that person has the money to buy it. No background checks needed.
You also don't need any kind of background check to buy a gun
on-line or at a gun show. There is no limit on how many guns you can
own or how much ammunition you can buy.
Here's
a few myths that need dispelling...
Good
guy with a gun: well, I think that one has already been addressed
above but in the case of mass shootings about which the NRA loves to
tell us the solution is more guns, anyone who is not highly trained
is not going to be effective and will likely just get themselves shot
or shoot other innocents. Any combat veteran can explain the fallacy
of John Doe citizen bringing down a shooter while all hell is
breaking loose. Target practice or plinking at cans does not equal
'highly trained'. Target practice or plinking at cans is not going
to give you the training to ignore that adrenaline dump with your
brain screaming at you to run away while scrambling for your weapon
with trembling fingers. You are not Rambo and real life is not like
the movies. And even in the few cases where a good guy with a gun
was present and did manage to prevent or stop the shooter, the few
lives saved does not in any way make up for the thousands who are
killed by the over abundance of and easy access to guns in this
country.
An
armed society is a polite society: Right, that's why people with
guns shoot at other cars in road rage. That's why people get in an
argument and before you know it, someone has pulled out a gun and
started shooting. That's why these open carry idiots strut around
with their guns and get in your face and insult and threaten you
because you don't agree with them. That's why back in the frontier
days the sheriffs made you check your guns in at the office when you
came to town.
If
you ban guns, only criminals will have guns: You do know where
criminals get their guns, right? They get them by buying a weapon
that has already been legally purchased or they steal them from
people who legally purchased them. Less guns in the population means
less guns available to criminals. Did you know a gun company created
a gun that would only fire if it was being held by it's owner? Yeah
and the NRA put all it's might behind making sure that it didn't make
it to market or failed to find buyers.
Guns
are needed to prevent the government from becoming tyrannical, also
known as we need guns to protect ourselves from the government:
Almost 250 years and not one tyrant that needed to be or was brought
down by citizens with guns. The system works folks, or it did until
Citizen's United and the Lobby consortium took the power away from
the people. It's not the government we need to fear or bring down,
it's the corporations who think they can buy the government. And
really, the largest and most advanced military in the world is not
going to be brought to its knees by a bunch of untrained yahoos with
guns, not even by those private self-styled 'militias'. I don't care
how many guns they have. If the government wants to take your guns
or take you down, it will succeed.
Guns
don't kill people, people kill people: Yes, and they do it with
freaking guns! If a person is determined to kill someone, they will
find a way. Knife, poison, hit 'em with a car, use a baseball bat or
iron skillet, yeah, people will kill. A gun takes no determination.
All a gun takes is a little twitch of the finger and you don't even
have to get close. If people had to get up close to kill there would
probably be a whole lot less killing.
Freedom!: Sorry, your freedom will not be abridged because you can't have a
fucking personal armory. No one is coming to get you unless you
become a threat with your fucking armory. We live in a civilized
society where, yes, bad things do happen but on the whole people go
about their daily lives for their whole lives without ever needing a
gun. And your right to freedom does not allow you to abridge the
rights of others. We have the right not to be afraid every time we
go out because of some yahoo carrying a gun.
The
2nd amendment was written because the Founding Fathers
want people to be able to rise up against the government: Wrong.
That's a myth. The second amendment was written to appease the slave
holding states that had their private militias to hunt down escaped
slaves look it up. This gave them the authority to continue
to do that (you know, the 'well regulated militia part'). Also, they
recognized that many people needed their arms, which consisted of
muskets and cap and ball pistols, for food and safety on the
frontier. It was the Supreme Court that twisted the 2nd
Amendment into what it is today and we are reaping the results of
that in thousands of deaths a year.
Liberals
want to ban guns: Well, that would be nice but it's never going to
happen. What liberals want is extensive background checks every time
a gun is sold or re-sold, required extensive training, waiting
periods, limits on the amount of ammunition that can be bought,
limits on the type and quantity of guns an individual can own,
insurance so that if and when you are irresponsible with your gun you
will be responsible for the damage. We want you to have to show a
need for that gun and we want you to keep it in your house and locked
up with exceptions when you can show a need to take it out in public.
And we want all that reviewed every year. Any of or all that would
be great. Why should it be harder to own a car than a gun?
I'm
not against guns per se. I know there are people out there who are
justified in owning their gun...people who hunt, those who live out
in the country and have to deal with things like venomous snakes and
wild hogs, people who are isolated and any call for help would take a
long response time, people in urban areas who have to be in high
crime rate areas, people who transport large sums of money or other
valuables, people who have a reasonable fear of assault, etc. I grew
up in a time when people carried their hunting rifles on the gun rack
and my father had guns that he kept locked up, I've gone skeet
shooting. But this unfettered access to a ridiculous array of
weaponry combined with a complete lack of mental health care and the
glorification of violence (we are the most war mongering
nation on the planet, have been in one war or another for nearly
every year of our national existence look it up)
and division and this particular national feeling of entitlement to
whatever we want and want to do, because America!,
has got to stop!
Right
now, we don't need foreign enemies because we have lost more people
to gun violence than to all the wars and terrorism. And we did it to
ourselves. We've had more mass shootings than days of the year so
far just this year alone and that doesn't count all the other forms of gun violence.
What
the fuck is wrong with us as a nation that we do not have what it
takes to do what it has to take.
I cannot imagine how this country will bring itself to stop killing babies, children, innocents. There is no national will to disarm the NRA. Consider Ben Carson, who held the Oregon students responsible because they did not rush their killer as one, as he, of course, would have done. I cannot continue; it makes me ill.
ReplyDeleteYou make so many good points, and I can't find anything here to disagree with. I'm so sick at heart of the sight of candle vigils for the killed. It's time to do something, but as you say the country doesn't seem to have the will to do what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteI swear to you- I think maybe the wind is changing a bit. I don't even know why I think this but I do. All of your points are right on and this is a very good post. And I honestly think that people are going to quit putting up with the tyranny of the NRA and start demanding stricter gun laws concerning back-ground checks required for all gun purchases, tracking of guns like we do for cars, more stringent training in their use and licensing.
ReplyDeleteCall me a dreamer.
I am not the only one...
I fear that your country's biggest terrorist threat is the NRA. They don't value human life over this right to weaponry.
ReplyDeleteMany of the points you made were included in this comedy piece by Australian, Jim Jefferies. Australia figured out how to solve their mass shootings issue in one go.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=89d_1411198955
Hi. Your total frustration certainly comes through, and rightfully so. I agree with you on every point. Think it was in the Washington Post comments I saw the math of how many of us are being killed by this stupidity. My husband is from Canada. He has said many times that it is no accident that Canada doesn't have the regular mass killings that we have. And, the part that gets me, is the absolute absurdity of the assault rifles! How can any sane person justify those? I think the operative word is "sane".
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the sensible Homeland we grew up in has disappeared. The only reason I can find is the one percent. They own the NRA, the Supreme Court, most of Congress. Oh. And don't forget the big one!! The media. And what gripes the heck out of me is how religious they all are. Keep killing, but pray. And poor President Obama. He is so tired of going through the same scenes.
As to your commenter who said things are getting better, I for one, haven't seen a glimmer of hope on the horizon. It does help to find others who are of like minds. Thank you.
yes, yes, yes and yes. Yes, Ellen, YES!
ReplyDeleteBravo! Correct on all counts. As Stephen said above, I don't think I can stand to look at more pictures in the paper of candlelight vigils. Jesus God, people, take legislative ACTION.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the high crime rates in some other parts of the world, like Africa and Central and South America. Part of what makes those areas so vicious is that they have been flooded by cheap GUNS, both from America and Russia.
I just don't get the fascination with weaponry that some people have. They're consumed by irrational fears about the future and this is how they see themselves retaining some measure of control, I suppose. Misguided!
Brilliant, Ellen.
ReplyDeleteAs I this, all I could think of is, if only this entire statement could be printed on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
Run for office and I'll sell my house, move to Texas, and vote for you!
I agree with you completely. I feel the NRA has bought Congress. If a great percentage of the American public wants stricter gun control then why is it not happening? I put the blame of these mass shootings at the door of the NRA. Thank you for your blog and this post.
ReplyDeleteThe only way things will change is to get responsible conservative gun owners on board. The only way to do that is present a legal argument that shows that gun safety measures are certainly NOT an infringement on 2nd amendment rights. One would do well to read the legal arguments from both DC vs Heller, and McDonald vs Chicago. You will be interested to know that the *recognized* constitutional right to self defense is only seven years old (DC vs Heller), and McDonald vs Chicago did not even bring up the constitutionality of Chicago's gun ban law, merely ruled that the right to possess arms is protected by the 14th amendment. But honestly, we know prohibition doesn't work, and so a gun ban is not practicable (or would survive Constitutional "strict scrutiny"). But even bathshit crazy Sam Alito recognizes that restrictions can be placed through regulation on sale and acquisitions, not to mention "reasonable weapons" (see National Firearms Act).
ReplyDeleteYes, irony, the 14th amendment, the one some rabid conservatives wish to make disappear, guarantees their self-defense gun rights.
ReplyDeleteSo many of us agree on the regulation of guns and the only way we can get what we want is to get money out of government so that once again the voter will have the power and the final say. Ronald Reagan was surrounded by extremely well trained men with automatic weapons and that did not stop him from being shot. The only thing that stops a bad with a gun is taking it away or making it way too hard to get!
ReplyDeleteI will write/email/phone my congressmen every single week until something is done! I will post, as you have here, my own words and understandings of the problem, over and over again until I reach as many as I can. We all need to do something. The NRA is bullying everyone, just as the tobacco industry was put in its place, so will the NRA. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Well said!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more and wish the gutless politicians would start doing the job the people elected them to do. Maine has passed a law that anyone can carry a concealed weapon! The police are against it, anyone with a brain is against it, but there it is passed by republicans in the legislature. God help us....
ReplyDelete