Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Gun Control

I realize that some of you are very passionate about the right to bear firearms. Many of you insist and argue that there is a constitutional right to keep personal handguns in your homes, and that this accord is guaranteed to all Americans by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. I respect your opinion. Currently, the justices of the Supreme Court are evaluating arguments that may impact, in some way, gun laws in this country.

For me personally, I find it difficult to construct arguments against gun control laws. Even more amazing to me are the individuals who become apologists for easing some of the current firearms restrictions that some states have on the books. The people I've watched vigorously make those arguments seem to possess a pathological obsession with keeping a weapon on their person, and are convinced that the federal government is a far greater threat to them and their family than Al-Qaeda or the former Soviet Union (not an exaggeration). Most of the reasoning in favor of unhampered access to firearms seem to involve the conviction that more guns are needed to defend ourselves from pre-existing guns. In other words, now that there are so many weapons in the wrong hands, we need more weapons to defend ourselves from the weapons that are in the wrong hands. This type of mentality creates a vicious circle that only exacerbates gun proliferation in this country, and the senseless violence that subsequently arises from it. I have heard no argument from handgun aficionados that work at reversing the number of guns circulating in this country, nor have I heard them introduce an effective strategy that will remove firearms that have fallen into the wrong hands.

And yes, you can hit me with all types of data and statistics and demographics and whatever to prove that restricting access to firearms does absolutely nothing to diminish the number of violent acts involving a handgun. Here is my response to those arguments: I simply don't believe them.

Bowling for Columbine?

The deleterious Michael Moore showed faint signs of intelligence when he made the film Bowling for Columbine back in 2002. Whether you like of hate the man, try and look at the film devoid of his insane political views ( I know it's difficult). You'll be surprised what you'll find as the reason for so many firearms purchases in the United States.

Very disturbing.
(To avoid cacophony pause music player)


I know that NOT every gun enthusiast is a fanatic or an unbalanced megalomaniac with a trigger-happy finger. That, however, does little to assuage my distress over the amount of gun violence that takes place in our society every day.

1 comment:

Tracy said...

Good post Tom, you've given me plenty to think about!!