October 10, 2012
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Guns R Us
Recently I watched a documentary on HBO called Gun Fight which as you might have guessed, is all about the battle over guns here in America. Now I’m not going to even pretend to be partial about this issue; I’m fiercely pro gun control. I will clarify, like many people who are for gun control, I’m not advocating that guns should be outlawed; hell I do still believe people should have the right to defend themselves. The NRA and other gun nuts strongly believe that if anybody is for gun control than that automatically means that they are 100% against the ownership of guns of any kind. But, that is part of the problem with the pro gun lobby; they just go to extreme conclusions as to help drive home their insane, paranoid belief that we liberals want to take away their guns. That can’t be further from the truth; they say things like that to get support for their cause.
Unfortunately though, they refuse to accept the very rational thought of sane and reasonable gun laws. Than again, let me give you an idea of the type of people we are dealing with here. In this documentary, there were gun lovers talking about how they constantly have their gun either by their side or literally on them at all times. One guy who lives in a rural area mind you, mentioned that he sits at home watching tv with the gun strapped to his waist because, “you never know when you are going to need it.” Seriously. Unless you have lots of enemies that are trying to kill you or you live in a high crime area like the south side of Chicago, parts of Detroit, or Compton, you probably don’t need to have a gun on you constantly. Look, I live in the suburbs of Chicago, which in all likelihood has higher crime than the rural areas of this country and don’t even have a need to own a gun or any weapons really. My guess is that dude who said that has never had any occurrence in which to have to use the gun at home.
Also these same people have the belief that they are going to need to over throw the government at some point. You know, because some southerner is going to get together with a few of his neighbors and rise up and overthrow the government with their guns. After all it’s easy to overthrow the government, we only have local and state law enforcement, the FBI, CIA, DEA, NSA, Homeland Security, Secret Service, ATF, and five branches of the military. Oh and if all that fails the Department of Agriculture. So you can see why they would think they would be able to overthrow the government. But this is the mentality of the gun lovers.
What really blew me away about this documentary was just how easy it is to obtain some very lethal and dangerous weapons. Did you know that anybody can obtain a gun that can fire a bullet from a mile and a half away and hit it’s target? A fucking mile and a half away! Seriously, why the fuck would anybody not in the military need to own such a weapon? I know a lot of gun lovers like to say that a prime reason why they own so many guns is for hunting. But, just what the fuck type of animal are you hunting that you need to be a mile and a half away from it to kill it? And if you are that scared of the animal that you can’t be, say, within a hundred yards, well than you should probably just stick to shooting in video games.
Most issues have multiple sides; both extremes and the middle and everywhere else in between. With guns though their seems to be two sides. The side that believes in sane and reasonable gun laws and the side that is completely irrational, paranoid and quite frankly, fucking nuts about guns. What is frustrating is that the gun lobby is so damn powerful that it makes even the slightest gun legislation damn near impossible to pass. I’ve said it over and over and over again and will keep saying it, but why is it that our guns and our gun rights far outweigh the value of a human life? How many more mass shootings does there have to be before sanity finally wins out and laws are passed? Right now, the clock is ticking until the next mass shooting. Somewhere out there, some mentally unstable person is obtaining guns and ammunition and planning the next mass shooting.
The pro gun lobby always says two things after these shootings. One, they say “now is not the time to have a debate on guns?” To them though, it is never the time. We haven’t had a mass shooting in, what, over a week now, can we talk about it now? No. Still not the right time. The other thing they always say is that these shootings could be prevented with MORE guns in the hands of MORE people. Yeah, because why have only one person shooting when you can have several firing aimlessly trying in vain to shoot the gunman before he shoots them; meanwhile other innocent bystanders are getting sprayed with stray bullets. And to think, I haven’t even touched on the day to day gun violence that exists that does not result in multiple deaths.
But on and on we will go. I’m sure this won’t be my last post on this topic. I’m sure I will have many more posts over the years on this topic. Because, this is the problem that never seems to change or go away. It’s not like the people who are murdered by guns every day. They go away forever.
Comments (6)
I tend to think that most gun control laws are worthless.
Having said that, if I could get rid of all guns at once I would.
So this is completely off topic, but have you heard of the show “30 & 30″ on ESPN 2? It made me think of you. It’s a GREAT show and it’s about different scandals, etc. in sports history. The one we watched tonight was all the doping and steroid use in the 80′s and the rivalry between Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis. I am now convinced that Usain Bolt is one shady bastard. Next week the new episode is on James Naismith and the rules of basketball and how there’s a document stating the rules that should be in Allen Fieldhouse, but they’re not. Anyway, i went to KU and saw many games in Allen Fieldhouse so i’m excited for that episode. I hope you’re able to catch the show sometime. It’s very well done.
I have mixed thoughts on gun control. On one hand, I believe criminals will do whatever they need to in order to obtain guns. It doesn’t matter what the laws are, they will get a gun somehow. On the other hand, there are types of guns that just don’t need to be legally sold to civilians. Next to us at the gun range was a guy shooting an AK 47. I believe in home protection and hunting but not automatic guns.
I’ve been in situations where theoretically, I could have stopped a criminal. I’ve been robbed at gunpoint and witnessed a shooting at the courthouse. I could have been carrying a gun both times (wasn’t inside the courthouse) but I know I would have just made the situation worse. Vern carries a gun (ok just passed open carry, but no one openly carries, it’s still concealed). He (and I) live in crappy parts of town so I understand him carrying. It requires a LOT of training to control your adrenaline when you actually need to use a gun for protection. I don’t trust myself to keep cool so I don’t plan on ever carrying.
A girl was killed about a mile away from a high-powered rifle that was shot through the back of the car. Her boyfriend was getting her home before her midnight curfew and his car was blocked in at the house they were at. The guy blocking him told him to just use his car and he turned out to be the target. I don’t know if it was a “hunting” rifle but they said high powered. Luckily they caught the sleazebag.
@TheTheologiansCafe - There are always going to be guns and they should always be legal, as evil as they are. we are a country so obsessed with guns that making them illegal would be pointless. But, I do think we can have effective laws that make it harder for certain people who shouldn’t have them (like the mentally unbalanced) to get them. Other countries do not have the gun violence we have because of laws; I’m convinced if they can do it we can do it too.
@ShamrockLover - I have heard of that show and always want to catch it but never do. They have had some good ones previously that I really wanted to catch, like the one about Magic Johnson and his HIV announcement. Yeah, cheating in sports really pisses me right the fuck off. Because of the steroid scandal in baseball, I’ve gotten very cynical and jaded so any time anybody does anything amazing in any sport, I have to question and wonder if it was because of performance enhancers.
@PennyLumpkins - I agree with the viewpoint that criminals are going to get their hands on guns no matter what; quite frankly there is not much we can do to stop them, much like prohibition. I do believe in one being able to protect and defend themselves. A big part of the problem is mentally unstable people getting guns; these mass shootings are usually done by people with mental problems. I had no idea you were robbed at gunpoint. I can’t even imagine how scary that would have been.