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| We have to do something different. |
Immediately after the Uvalde, TX school massacre, I posted that I don't know the answers. I don't. There are multiple problems in our country that contribute to these tragedies. I want to post about guns this morning, but before I do, because some of what I have to say about guns will immediately make some of you point out some or all of these other issues. Some problems which, in my opinion, contribute to this are:
A mental health epidemic.
Anti-depressant and ADHD medications are dispensed like candy to manage kids moods.
Broken homes and fatherless homes.
We don't spank or discipline our kids anymore, not like in days past.
Lack of religious morality.
The morality in our entire culture has been whittled away in favor or individualism and choices.
Law enforcement invariably seems to have known about the killer but they never seem to be able to intercept them before they kill (because we're innocent till proven guilty).
Violence on TV and in movies is glamorized and glorified, it's terrible, and it is a factor.
Video games train kids that more killing is better and desensitizes them to killing.
Social media, especially the anonymously posted stuff, dehumanizes everyone in the eyes of some people.
Lastly (this list may not be comprehensive, but this is last on this list), people who IN NO WAY should have access to guns have it. This is where I'm going.
Republicans are always protecting our right, guaranteed under the 2nd Amendment, to bear arms. An editorial I read by Peggy Noonan in yesterday's Wall Street Journal struck a nerve with me. I didn't think she was all right, and I won't dissect her piece here. I will post a link to it in a comment. What struck me was how (my own words here) Republicans need to learn to walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes, protect my right to bear arms, including my AR-15. The right to bear arms isn't for hunting. It isn't for home defense with small caliber stuff. It's to preclude or deter the next tyrannical government, foreign or domestic, from trampling U.S. citizens other rights like the British did to the colonists. That's what the right to bear arms is for. Self defense, target shooting, and hunting are great, and our 2A right protects those activities, too. But, let there be no doubt, they are NOT the reason it's in the Constitution.
So it's great that the NRA and the GOP protect that right. Democrats think they have a solution. Their solution is to limit or revoke our right to bear arms, a right that our Constitution clearly and specifically explains comes from the creator, not the government, and which the Constitution specifically prohibits our government from infringing. It's noteworthy that in colonial times, wealthy colonists had not just cannons, but some had their own warships, with cannons aplenty. Cannons were the most powerful weapons on Earth at the time. I'm not advocating we all have our own stashes of weapons of mass destruction. Democrats are wrong on this issue, but Republicans are, too.
We've let this debate become a left vs. right, prohibit vs. allow, guns vs. no guns, Republicans vs. Democrats issue. I've already said Democrats are wrong about 2A. I've already said that I do not have the answers. All that being true, kids like the Uvalde Texas mass-murderer, child murderer, evil scumbag shouldn't have guns. Democrats have kept Republicans on the defensive about the guns issue, and Republicans are cast as a one song, nightclub act, singing "guns, guns, guns, guns, guns" till closing time in response.
We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can. Despite the worn out all or none battle lines (no pun intended) that have been drawn, Republicans need to lead the way to not just protecting our 2A rights, but to prevent people who shouldn't have guns from getting them. I don't know what the answer to that is. We, myself included, have been so myopically focused on protecting our own sacred right to bear arms, that we enable people who simply ought not have that right access to them.
What is the answer? I don't know. I really don't. Like many millions of Americans, I know my guns are innocent and that I won't use them like these evil, deranged, wackos are using them far to often. Any Republican who dares say we have a problem and tries to do ANYTHING is immediately attacked as a traitor and a RINO. Democrats don't accept the founders' rationale for 2A in the first place, and they've successfully painted the GOP into a corner where they're fighting to protect 2A rights but doing next to nothing to prevent the next one. Or the next one. Or the next one.
We can walk and chew gum. We can find an answer IF we look for it. All or none, guns or no guns is NOT an answer and never will be. What we can't do is what we always do, stay in our left and right trenches and behind our well fortified battle lines. Why can't we? Because this keeps happening. Period. Like I said, I don't know. I don't. But Democrats don't have the answer, and neither do Republicans. They both act like they do, and many of us are fully aligned with one or the other of the two, but these keep happening.
One last thought: don't bring up abortion or Chicago murders or other side issues. Don't shift the conversation. That happens again and again, every damned time. The questions are these: How can we keep guns out of the hands of homicidal maniacs. How do we protect schoolkids and innocents from the next one of these? These killers shouldn't have guns. I am not a killer. Figure it out. We can walk and chew gum at the same damned time.
I'm pissed off.
Let’s put the blame on the Chinese, it’s believed that they invented gun powder!
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to guns, it really makes no difference what we, as a country do, it will never be enough!
The preamble to the Constitution states that “…in order to make a more perfect union…” does not mean that it’s making a perfect union, it’s just making a “more” perfect one.
The reason that I am writing this is because of my frustration about what is going on, once again, about gun control following a mass shooting and loss of lives. I am not as eloquent as most people are when putting my thoughts on paper, and it doesn’t matter what I say because people will find fault with my logic. Some will say it’s not enough, some might say I’ve gone overboard, and one or two might agree.
So what do we do? We do our best, that’s all that we can do. If we take the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment at its words “shall not be infringed”, there should be no laws about gun control period. There are people that would say that it’s outdated, that the arms they were talking about were muskets and had no conception of todays firearms, and that it needs to be repealed or revised. There are others that would say that it was more of an idea and a way to protect us from our own government and needs to stay put. I wasn’t going to give my opinion, but I believe the latter because of the forgotten 3rd Amendment that had an escape clause, “… but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”
Will doing what the far “left” wants done about guns protect us, all of us, some of us? My answer is “maybe”! Will doing what the far “right” wants done about guns protect us, all of us, some of us? My answer is “maybe”! What about compromise, will doing that protect us, all of us, some of us? Again, my answer is “maybe”!
I’m not being wishy washy, nothing we do will be enough. Nothing! What ever we do will be exploited by people that want to cause harm, injuries and death. Sure, some might be prevented, but then you have to ask yourself if it’s worth the risk of losing the rights given to us by the 2nd Amendment.
So let’s say we repeal the 2nd Amendment, make strict gun control laws, even make it illegal to possess a gun. What if we got it wrong, nothing changed, we still have mass murders; do you think the government would give us back our 2nd Amendment rights. What if the bad guys still have their illegal guns because they kept them rather than turn them in? We could just call the police to protect us when that gun toting bad guy breaks into the house. That works in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles doesn’t it?
In all cases, it’s the individual or group that causes this. We need to evaluate the risks and do our best, but it will never ever be enough.
Thank you, anonymous, for your thoughtful reply.
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