For those of you who have been around since day one back '09, I rarely write political oriented posts. I think in those 13 years, I've written maybe the equivalent in political posts. I usually play it close to the chest with my political views, since over the years I've gotten a serious quantity of static for publicly stating them, and I've learned that sometimes, staying true to yourself can be a lonely existence indeed.
Note: the last political post that appeared here, was in 2021 and that lost me a dear friend whose political views were for the most part, diametrically opposite to mine and were getting worse.
Anyways, the last time I wrote about gun control was after another well known school shooting that happened in my home state about a decade ago. And here we are again, ten years later, talking about gun control.
For the record, I am neither pro-gun nor pro-gun control. I know that sounds wishy-washy, but while I do have a healthy respect for firearms, I do not own one, and in fact, with the family exception of an old Civil War military rifle, never saw one up close until a few weeks ago when my son showed me his 9mm (very long story as to why he has CCW permit). I also respect the myriad of reasonable laws on the books, both Federal and State, that govern/dictate how to purchase/own a firearm.
In today's post, the only thing I'm going to touch upon is the old (and to be honest, quite tiresome) refrain of demanding yet even "tougher gun control laws". I'm not even address the call for banning assault rifles, because while I do agree that the average citizen has no real need for an actual assault rifle, people calling for it really do need to narrow their definition of what one actually is.
My thoughts are basically, we don't need tougher gun control laws because frankly, we should be properly enforcing the ones that do work. Now, the reality is that gun control laws only really work on those who are law-abiding to begin with, however minimal that may be. People will always work within the parameters that they're given in order to get what they want. The most recent incident confirms that point, which is that the person in question legally bought his weapon.
I really have only three questions that I would love someone to give me an honest answer to, because I don't think that those pushing for more gun control can truthfully answer them.
1} If I legally purchase my weapon and successfully go through all the hoops in completing the purchase (background checks, firearm safety classes, apply for/receiving a permit, how are those laws exactly stopping me from using it for nefarious purposes?
2} I meet a friend, who introduced me to his friend, who said they had a firearm for sale and did I want to purchase it? Well me, being the not-very-nice person that I am, purchase it and later use it for nefarious purposes. How are those laws exactly stopping me from doing so?
3} If I'm throwing all kinds of shade and vibes about doing something nefarious, such as posting diatribes/pictures on all kinds of social media, why aren't the authorities, who are probably afraid of violating someone's "rights", doing something to stop me after being notified?
One more point I should mention that seems to get lost in the shuffle. Firearms are 100% inanimate objects, and they need a human to make them work. So really, they don't kill people unless a human operates it. They are simply a method to a means. If we severely restrict firearms, like in other countries, people with nefarious intents would be using something like knifes and machetes to do the job.
And yet still, one more point: based on the information coming out in the past few days, I sincerely hope/pray that not only the police are brought up on charges and are made to pay heavily for their inaction, but the school administration are brought up on charges too. There is a boatload of blame to go around and we should not simply focus on demanding more gun control laws when we don't properly enforce the ones we have to begin with.
Stay safe, stay sane, and hold your loved ones a shade tighter, because there's a whole lot of evil in the world today and sometimes, the law doesn't really help you to stay safe.
Personally i am in the same frame of mind to you, that being said living in a country with the strictest gun laws in the world, we still have criminals and people with nefarious intent who can get their hands on and use firearms. Now since firearms are somewhat limited here, unless you know someone who knows someone who can get you a firearm its straight forward for them and they will use them either to prove a point to who ever they are objectionable towards or to use them for their intended purpose to kill. As knife crime is at a huge level here because of the firearms restrictions i wonder if things were relaxed somewhat then maybe those knife crimes would shift towards firearms instead, because no matter what level of laws you have criminals will never abide by those laws anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe UK is on the whole a normalish country but history shows that a tyrannical government with a population disarmed has chosen to wipe out a considerable amount of of opposing citizens because the government had guns and the population didnt, so you can see that the United States constitution have placed the right to bear arms as a safety net option which makes sense as the USA is kinda young in history compared to the rest of us, doesn't take a genius to work out that sometime in the future your going to get a tyrannical government at some stage, every other country in the world has had one at some point in its growth.
Now even if your not for or against firearms then wouldn't it be prudent to say that maybe it would be best practice to leave the fair minded law abiding citizens alone and solely concentrate on the nefarious and criminal fraternity in relieving them of their weapons because you might need the fair minded and law abiding to come to your aid if and when the rise of the tyrannical government arrives?
And on a side note its crazy to think with a revenue stream the usa has your government is more happy to spend billions on a useless studies for this and that when that money can go towards the school security and ring fence them, instead you dont consider airports as prisons just because they have fences and security you have to go through before you fly out yet school security is rather less important on the list of secure buildings so you can protect the next generation of the brightest and best your future has to offer.
Sad to say, we currently do have a "tyrannical government" that is hell bent on inflicting as much punishment on the populace for daring to vote not their way in 2016 {sad but true, just look at MSM}, one of which is the manufactured energy crisis we currently have}.
DeleteIn regards to your points, they are valid and pretty much spot on, which is why the call for more gun control, and as of yesterday (5/30) the call to ban certain firearms in Canada and the US is so moronically stupid.
it's just....sad. On all fronts.
Yep , guns need a person with evil motives to harm innocent folks just trying to go about life.
ReplyDeleteWhy shooting is a terrible idea and respect for all others is missing in in the shooters motives. Society's failure!
Other weapons can always do evil's job...
Laws only apply to those following them. Yep!
Exactly. Gun laws are only followed by reasonable people with reasonable intentions.
DeleteI live in a country with restrictive gun laws and we have very few mass shootings. Then again, our population is a lot smaller than yours. I agree with your point that law-breakers will always get a weapon if they want one, so, what's the answer then?
ReplyDeleteExactly. I have yet to hear a coherent thought about that. If someone is determined to do a nefarious deed and they acquired the firearm(s) in a 100% legitimate way, then what?
DeleteGun control laws are for reasonable people like us, and as such we will follow them. Someone with bad intent either will (sadly like the last few shootings) or not.
And honestly, there isn't any kind of serious repercussion for violating a gun law, simply a slap on the wrist and a heavy fine, and that's it.