Gun Control or No Gun Control?

Gun Control or No Gun Control?

That is the question, isn't it? Whether or not the United States Constitution Second Amendment is a blanket policy of approval for owning guns or if it is "interpretable" with respect to modern times. Democrats say it is "interpretable". Republicans think it is absolute. I stand on the side of gun ownership, although I do not own a gun. I don't own one because I sold my old one a few years ago and have never replaced it. So I fall on the conservative side of this issue ... as you will be able to tell further on.

Down the Primrose Path

Something that's been bugging me lately has to deal with social changes. In America, for the past two years, we have been defunding the police and reducing the number of cops out on the streets significantly. In America, it is now acceptable to allow criminals, and I'm not talking about jaywalkers and handicap zone violators, I'm talking about real, hardened, experienced, connected, funded, organized, and ready-to-go criminals, out on the streets with zero regard for public safety. Okay. Next, our government has provided support and transportation to illegal aliens, some of whom don't come with love in their hearts. And now we have the call for disarming Americans. Why do I feel like I'm being led somewhere?

Add It Up and It Doesn't Add Up

So we have fewer cops on the street (with guns) more criminals on the streets (with guns), illegal aliens from MS-13, and God knows what other gangs and cartels flooding in like shoppers at K-Mart on Black Friday (with guns), and we have Uncle Sam saying you're going to lose your weapons. That doesn't make sense to me. Fewer police, more criminals, more gangs, and God-knows-what-else, and the government doesn't want you to be able to protect yourself from any of it. Really? Why? I should think the government would be handing out handguns and rifles like they were Hare-Krishna devotees in an airport handing out salvation. Hmmmmm?

Follow the Rabbit

Let's take a look at some possible scenarios here:

Scenario #1?- The government collects everyone's weapons. Criminals are the only people with guns. Citizens die in large numbers because they are unable to defend themselves against home invasion, carjacking, armed robbery, murder, and a host of other maladies. Not good for citizens.

Scenario #2?- The government collects some weapons. Criminals gain control because they have more guns than private owners. Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, St Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans all become "criminal only" zones that citizens avoid due to the high amount of unchecked crime. Cops can't control crime in large metropolitan areas due to fewer numbers and lax district attorneys. Not good for citizens.

Scenario #3?- The government doesn't collect any weapons. Criminals are warier of citizens. Gun availability is restricted to over 21-year-old buyers. Automatic weapons and large-capacity clips are still available to law enforcement but no one else. Not good for citizens but more balanced in the real world.

Scenario #4?- The government tries to collect weapons and citizens revolt violently. Armed groups and militias organize to resist attempts at collecting weapons. Firefights break out between government agents and armed citizen groups resisting their authority. Other social issues become ensnared and riots break out. Armed citizens round up criminals, illegal aliens, gangs, unwanted immigrant groups, and others they deem undesirable for removal ... or worse. Not good for anyone, especially bad people and the government.

Which Way Did They Go?

Congress has taken up the issue and, as usual, opinions are all over the map. Everybody has an opinion but the Democrats have a majority. My guess is they will pass some kind of bill that makes people feel like they care about children being murdered by insane Mexicans with automatic weapons. Once everyone calms down and a little time passes, another catastrophe will occur and take everyone's attention in another direction. That's how we are. Shiny things get our attention. Tragedy will always be with us. The only question is how much?

Death is Only the Beginning

The Mummy said that right before he was swallowed up into some gooky-looking tar. He also scratched it into the lid of the coffin he was buried alive inside. The guy had a message and he wanted to make sure everyone got it. His message is still true today. When people die without reason or rhyme, we all wonder why. Is it God's plan? I doubt it. Is it man's inhumanity to man? Yup. Does it happen all the time, all over the planet? Yup. Does that make it all right? Nope, it just makes it a reality that some humans must confront. Death motivates us to live and if weapons are going to help us do that, then guess what?

The Latest, Greatest, and Most Amazing!

Weapons have evolved to the point of incredulity. Guns can be as small as a fountain pen or as large as Dirty Harry's Desert Eagle .44 Magnum. Guns can shoot one bullet or thousands of bullets in seconds. Mankind has developed the lethality of weapons to the point that trying to eliminate them will be impossible. The other problem the "No-guns" camp faces is the interpretation of the word "deadly". Used properly, cotton candy can be used to kill. That makes it a "deadly" weapon, doesn't it? What about poison darts and crossbows and ... well, the list goes on and on. Can we legislate away all of it?

More Nonsense From the Senseless

Take away everyone's guns and they will come up with another way to kill each other. It is in our DNA and despite the efforts of the Kumbaya crowd, it's not going to change. Nobody remembers 250,000 Rwandans being hacked to death with machetes. Gun control would not have been a factor there. 480,000 people a year die from smoking in America. Where's the legislation on that? Over 100,000 people die each year in America from drug overdoses ... legal and illegal. 500,000 people are homeless and 15,000 of them die every year. 45,000 people died from gunshot wounds last year, 7,000 of them were suicides, and the rest were gun violence or gun safety issues. Almost 6,400 murders were committed with guns. Murder is bad, no doubt about it, but maybe we ought to focus on a few other issues that kill more citizens.

Guns Bad - Gun Owners Good

Why is it when the statistics are quoted, that the vast majority of gun owners are deemed to be responsible for the carnage guns can cause? Why is it the smallest percentages are used to influence outcomes rather than the largest percentages when it comes to statistics on guns? 393 million people own guns and how many of them were involved in murders, robberies, and hijackings? Turns out to be .0000174% of gun owners who break laws. Yes, mass shootings are bad. There were over 500 of them in America last year. That's about 2 per day. Doesn't make it okay, just makes it something we need to be aware of and protect ourselves against. Turns out the mass shootings are committed by a lot of mental cases, gangs, and loners with a grudge. Not regular gun-owning citizens.

It Works, Sometimes

How many times have gun-toting citizens stopped crimes? Experts put the number at 2.5 million times in 2019. That number has only gone up since then. Of those, armed citizens killed over 1,500 criminals and police killed just over 600. Armed citizens killed more than twice as many criminals in the act and we've defunded the police since the stats were published. Makes my skin crawl to think the number of criminals on the streets has increased so much while the number of cops on the street has gone down so much. What's the average citizen supposed to do? According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff, you better arm yourself and get ready for more crime and more criminals on the street. That's plain enough for me.

Go Ahead, See What Happens

When Congress decides to disarm Americans, hell will have frozen over and Joe Biden will have scored over 90 on an IQ Test. It just ain't gonna happen. Too many people have too many weapons for the government to simply legislate them away. The average gun owner has at least 5 guns in his or her collection. The government can't figure out how to reduce the price of gas let alone how to retrieve guns from 383 million citizens. If they started next week they could finish up in about, oh, ... 600 years. No, matters have gone too far for them to go away. Liberals and Democrats are going to have to find another cause to jump on because this dog won't hunt. Ever. Period.