It's my first social Friday post and here I go bringing up one of the big items which is highly controversial. But the stand I am going to take isn't meant to be controversial. I hope this gives people on both sides of the issue something to think about.
First, I would like to address the side which believes we need more and stronger gun control laws. I do agree with finding a way to to keep guns out of the hands of people who would commit violent crimes such as what we saw in Portland, OR, upstate NY, and Newtown, CT. All three of these shootings have things in common that I believe we do not dare ignore.
The first is that in all the cases the guns were obtained illegally. The laws were already in place to keep guns out of the hands of these three criminals, and the laws did not matter. In two cases the guns were stolen. Guns that were purchased by law abiding citizens who had absolutely no intent of anyone ever being harmed by those guns were instead used by violent criminals to commit harm. The third case the criminal convinced someone else to purchase the guns for him. That person is now in jail awaiting trial for giving the guns to a known felon. Once again, the laws were in place, but the laws were not enough to stop the criminal intent. If we have to contend with criminals who are intent on committing this violence regardless of the law, then it is not the laws that are our biggest concern. Our concern is how we identify and stop these people from committing these acts of violence.
The second thing these three cases have in common is that they attacked unarmed targets. Laws prohibited guns at the mall and the school, and the firemen responding were not armed. Its not just these three cases, but many more. These violent criminals are intentionally going after men, women, and children who they know cannot fight back. Their intent is to cause maximum damage as quickly as possible and they cannot do that if even one person can shoot at them.
I believe we need to honestly look at both of these aspects and address them. We need to address why the laws we have in place were not effective. We cannot solve this problem if the laws we create are not effective, whether they already exist or we write new laws. We also need to address how we will defend men, women, and children who need to be defended. We cannot allow the innocent to be undefended against violent criminals in this manner. We must have a way to respond very quickly and effectively.
On the other side of the issue is the gun rights issues. We do have guarantees in the 2nd amendment to the constitution. We do have millions of legal gun owners who have never committed a crime of any kind. When I see messages supporting the rights of the people to own guns, and reaffirming the second amendment, and various topics from people who believe we need legal gun owners to be able to stop the criminals, I keep seeing one element missing. The gun side is not addressing the issue of how much guns are scary. There are lots of people who are very seriously, very honestly scared of guns and scared of people who own guns. It is not possible for the country to become unified in the stance on this while there are so many who are so truly scared. Their fear is sufficient to want all guns removed from society, then they will no longer need to fear them.
I don't blame that fear. I know how loud guns are. I am familiar with death, and I am familiar with pain. I am not afraid of guns themselves, but I am afraid of what could happen.
It's a very difficult path to tread. I don't know the answers. I don't know the laws that we need, and I don't know what it will really take to insure we can defend those who need defending. I just know that our laws and our actions did not work when they needed to work. It's time for us to truly take a look at this and find what will truly work and prevent this from ever happening again.
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