The Myth of Gun Control
Are guns really the problem? I once placed all my firearms on the kitchen table and sat staring at them and listening for hours. I wanted to see if any of the guns would try to talk me into robbing a bank or into shooting someone. Over time, I noticed that none of them moved or spoke a single word to me. I finally got tired and put them to bed.
“Well, that’s a really stupid thing to do,” you say. “Guns don’t talk; people talk.” Yes, I’m thinking you are right. Guns don’t do things by their selves. People must use them as a tool, whether during the heat of passion or with deliberate forethought. A gun has no mind or will.
Therefore, when we talk about gun control, shouldn’t we really be talking about people control? I believe we concentrate on gun control because it’s easy. It’s much harder to think about what we must do to cut down on murders and robberies and how we are going to change the behavior of people. To change behavior we would have to consider the poor, the under educated, the sick, etc. It’s much simpler to just control guns.
For example, it’s easy to say, “If we get rid of guns, we can save many lives.” It’s easy to say, but you’re living on Fantasy Island if you think you can make guns disappear. There are too many firearms around the world to be thinking you can eliminate them all. It’s an absurd thought. I am betting it can’t be done. It won’t be done.
Firearms are relatively easy to make—even at home. Firearms are in demand by people around the globe and when someone wants something, someone else is usually there to provide them their wishes. In fact, if you make it illegal, organized crime will sell it at a high price. A price only criminals can afford since they can steal as much money as they need to make the purchase.
Firearms also have useful purposes that are legal; at least legal this year. Many people use firearms to protect their families at home against unlawful intrusions from criminals. Is this wrong? Would you stop someone from protecting their family?
What did you say…police? You said, “Let the police protect the people?” My personal police officer is never there when I need him. Is yours? Do you have a personal police officer?
Which occurs faster: beating someone to death with a tire iron, or waiting for the police to respond to your location? Saying you should let the police protect us is absolutely one of the stupidest arguments for not having guns that I have ever heard. The people who voice this idea have no working brain functions at all.
A common thought is to make firearms harder to buy and less available to people. Therefore, we make laws that try to accomplish this. Many people aren’t capable of realizing how useless it is to make stricter gun laws. After all, criminals are people who break laws and they aren’t going to care about or abide by new gun laws. They break laws; that’s why they are called criminals. Make all the laws you want, they don’t care!
Take this example for comparison: We decide to make the drug cocaine illegal because we don’t want people using this substance. We make laws against using, selling, buying, and distributing cocaine. The results of these laws are: No one uses, sells, buys, or distributes cocaine. That didn’t really seem to work, did it? If it doesn’t work with drugs, why would it work with guns?
I believe the real problems are with the behavior of people, not guns. Yes, it’s much harder to address behavior problems. But, until it’s addressed, the problems won’t go away.
Some examples of wrong behavior:
•Inadequate parenting by people who believe they are great parents. Out of all the classes in school and all the careers chosen by graduates, the one thing almost everyone has in common is that they will be a parent. And parenting classes are rarely seen and, as far as I know, never mandatory. So, we will just learn from our parents, right?
•Inadequate schools where passing kids to the next grade is more important than teaching them. Why are tenured teachers allowed to stop being productive and still keep their jobs? Well, they are tenured, right? Is it right?
•Believing kindness and compassion work in place of punishment. Why do we release criminals from prison and allow them to prey on more and more victims instead of removing them from our society permanently? You say, “It’s being harsh to remove them permanently.” I say it’s harsh to let them create thousands of victims each year while they are free so we can feel better about being too harsh on the criminal.
•Believing that playing games without counting the score is more important than having someone loose the game. How do we learn to compete in business as adults where winning is important?
•Allowing people to promote ideas like “just give peace a chance” or the idea that “we should lay down our arms (military) and others will leave us alone.” This kind of thinking idealistic, childish, and means nothing to those who would video tape your terrors while your head is slowly sliced from your neck.
•Handing money to people on street corners with signs saying they “…just need a little help. God bless you.” If they were honest they would say, “I make more money this way than if I were working, it’s easier than working, and I pay no taxes. So, please, stupid people, help me support my drug/alcohol habit and give me a hand out.” Did you ever offer them a job? I have. They say no.
There are many more people problems that need to be addressed and it’s complicated to do so. It’s our nature to take the easy road.
It’s much easier to cry out our concern for the lives of our countrymen while complaining about the 2,000 military lives lost while fighting terrorists than it is to address the 50,000 lives lost every year in the USA from automobile accidents. At least we feel better because we did something.
It’s also easier to make gun laws than to address behavior. Then too, you can feel better because at least you have shown you care about people and you tried to do something about the problem. But, do you really care?
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