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omimouseThis is something that I don't think I've really talked about all that much. Like most of my political views, it is somewhat long and not exactly simple.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Now, that's pretty clear. And I don't really disagree with the above. However, I rather stronly disagree with the way it is being intrepreted by various and sundry. The first problem seems to stem from folks that only pay attention to the privelege part of the above and completely ignore the responsibility. Y'know, the bit about, A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State?
Now, the most I think that the government needs to get involved in on this is most of what's already supposed to be in place. Background checks required for purchase of firearms, (And yes, you take as long as it needs to run that bloody check. Why the hell do you need that gun now, anyways? Hmmmm? Learn to purchase rifles well before hunting season. Use the extra time before the season to get used to your new gun. And if you're really that bloody scared of whatever . . . learn to not treat lethal weapons as security blankets. Pardon the diversion, back to topic.) 'cause last I checked, there were some damn good reasons why convicted felons weren't allowed to own firearms. Personally, I'd add crossbows, longbows, polearms, and long blades to that list, but whatever. Care and Feeding of your New Gun, or some equivalant should also be in there somewhere. Maybe in high-school, or something. And no, I don't mean, 'oh shiny!', I mean have someone like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reanablade come in and have at least a day devoted to What It Means To Pick Up A Gun and Why This Is Important and This Is Not A Game. Demonstration with a fake human (tomato juice and chitlins would be a plus) in a field or shooting range would be a bonus.
See, it used to be that if you lived on the 'frontier', that gun was what kept you alive. It was what you used to hunt, what you used to protect yourself and your family, your livestock, your field, your neighbours . . . get the idea? It was a tool used to protect and defend, to care for and provide. It was a reminder to the government that the governed had already fought for their rights and won once, did they really want to try for round two? And, it was also the government's reassurance that, in times of emergency or crisis, they could call on an armed populace to assist in the defense of the nation.
Owning a gun is not some magical ward that will keep you safe. Proper training, the ability to recognize when lethal force is a good idea, and the willingness to use said letal force responsibily won't magically keep you fully safe either, but it'll go a lot longer of a way, whether you own a gun, a knife, an can of mace, or a full black belt from a respected dojo. And that, right there, is the crux of my problem with the way guns are treated today. They're either treated like a mad dog or a status symbol; a toy. A right that most don't fully understand, but insist that they have 'earned', or a rampaging bull elephant.
They are a tool. They differ from most tools in one very important aspect; a gun was designed to take life. It has no other use; it has no other purpose. No, listen to me. A gun (or a sword, crossbow, polearm, long bow) is not meant to wound or to maim, though sometimes they do. It is meant to kill. If you cannot accept that, then do not pick the weapon up. If you are willing to draw lethal force in a fight, then you had better be prepared to kill, because if that's me you're facing, I will treat the drawing of a tool designed purely to kill as intention to kill. And I will react like it. And if I think you mean to kill me, I'm not gonna stop at wounding you.
And I'm not the only person out there like this. I'm just one of the saner ones. This is why I saw red when the designer guns in pink and dayglo green came out. This is why I the only toys that I buy that look like guns are either for hall costumes (and even then, I treat it as though it were live and loaded) or are see-through water toys. Same goes for swords, etc. Getting into the habit of pointing something that looks like a weapon at someone in play is bloody dangerous.
They're tools, folks. Tools with only one real use. They won't magically protect you just by being there; you get to make the hard choice of whether or not you can take a life all by yourself. Guns can just make it so much easier for you to twotch and discover that someone's dead, and you didn't mean for it to happen. (Actually, so can crossbows.) Too many people find power in waving the damned things around, and they don't understand what they're holding. They don't have respect for the ability to take life with the squeeze of a trigger.
And that is my only other real grief with guns, and even it says more about the human element than anything else. They make it too easy to take a life without having to think about it. They make lethal 'accidents' too easy. Someone could get into the habit of just making all their problems go away by pointing and pulling that trigger. It's so easy, you don't even really have to think. You don't have to fight someone down hand-to-hand and be right in their face when they die. You can just point, and pull, and it's done. No more manager screaming at you, no more wife crying.
Somedays I wish that the only weaponry humanity had was all hand-to-hand. I could even stomach longbows, due to the amount of training that goes into learning how to use them properly. I honestly think that while it would never get rid of the lunatics, it would cut down on the folks that just grab an easy handful of death as a fast answer. But the world doesn't work like that, and what's done cannot be undone.
All I can do is remind folks to stop and slow down, to actually try and think things through. (Myself included; having your surrogate grandmother shot down outside a courthouse when you're nine tends to polarize one's world view for quite some time. Especially when it was discovered that the known drug-user and abusive POS who had made death-threats against the woman in question had the gun with him throughout the enitre custody case, inside the damned courtroom They didn't even offer her a police escort to her car, and he was fairly frothing at the mouth and shouting when she got custody of the kids. Ahem. Yes, I'm still bitter about that.)
Learn to talk with yourself about the things that matter(and be honest with yourself!), and to take responsibility for your actions. That's most all that anyone can really ask for.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Now, that's pretty clear. And I don't really disagree with the above. However, I rather stronly disagree with the way it is being intrepreted by various and sundry. The first problem seems to stem from folks that only pay attention to the privelege part of the above and completely ignore the responsibility. Y'know, the bit about, A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State?
Now, the most I think that the government needs to get involved in on this is most of what's already supposed to be in place. Background checks required for purchase of firearms, (And yes, you take as long as it needs to run that bloody check. Why the hell do you need that gun now, anyways? Hmmmm? Learn to purchase rifles well before hunting season. Use the extra time before the season to get used to your new gun. And if you're really that bloody scared of whatever . . . learn to not treat lethal weapons as security blankets. Pardon the diversion, back to topic.) 'cause last I checked, there were some damn good reasons why convicted felons weren't allowed to own firearms. Personally, I'd add crossbows, longbows, polearms, and long blades to that list, but whatever. Care and Feeding of your New Gun, or some equivalant should also be in there somewhere. Maybe in high-school, or something. And no, I don't mean, 'oh shiny!', I mean have someone like
reanablade come in and have at least a day devoted to What It Means To Pick Up A Gun and Why This Is Important and This Is Not A Game. Demonstration with a fake human (tomato juice and chitlins would be a plus) in a field or shooting range would be a bonus.See, it used to be that if you lived on the 'frontier', that gun was what kept you alive. It was what you used to hunt, what you used to protect yourself and your family, your livestock, your field, your neighbours . . . get the idea? It was a tool used to protect and defend, to care for and provide. It was a reminder to the government that the governed had already fought for their rights and won once, did they really want to try for round two? And, it was also the government's reassurance that, in times of emergency or crisis, they could call on an armed populace to assist in the defense of the nation.
Owning a gun is not some magical ward that will keep you safe. Proper training, the ability to recognize when lethal force is a good idea, and the willingness to use said letal force responsibily won't magically keep you fully safe either, but it'll go a lot longer of a way, whether you own a gun, a knife, an can of mace, or a full black belt from a respected dojo. And that, right there, is the crux of my problem with the way guns are treated today. They're either treated like a mad dog or a status symbol; a toy. A right that most don't fully understand, but insist that they have 'earned', or a rampaging bull elephant.
They are a tool. They differ from most tools in one very important aspect; a gun was designed to take life. It has no other use; it has no other purpose. No, listen to me. A gun (or a sword, crossbow, polearm, long bow) is not meant to wound or to maim, though sometimes they do. It is meant to kill. If you cannot accept that, then do not pick the weapon up. If you are willing to draw lethal force in a fight, then you had better be prepared to kill, because if that's me you're facing, I will treat the drawing of a tool designed purely to kill as intention to kill. And I will react like it. And if I think you mean to kill me, I'm not gonna stop at wounding you.
And I'm not the only person out there like this. I'm just one of the saner ones. This is why I saw red when the designer guns in pink and dayglo green came out. This is why I the only toys that I buy that look like guns are either for hall costumes (and even then, I treat it as though it were live and loaded) or are see-through water toys. Same goes for swords, etc. Getting into the habit of pointing something that looks like a weapon at someone in play is bloody dangerous.
They're tools, folks. Tools with only one real use. They won't magically protect you just by being there; you get to make the hard choice of whether or not you can take a life all by yourself. Guns can just make it so much easier for you to twotch and discover that someone's dead, and you didn't mean for it to happen. (Actually, so can crossbows.) Too many people find power in waving the damned things around, and they don't understand what they're holding. They don't have respect for the ability to take life with the squeeze of a trigger.
And that is my only other real grief with guns, and even it says more about the human element than anything else. They make it too easy to take a life without having to think about it. They make lethal 'accidents' too easy. Someone could get into the habit of just making all their problems go away by pointing and pulling that trigger. It's so easy, you don't even really have to think. You don't have to fight someone down hand-to-hand and be right in their face when they die. You can just point, and pull, and it's done. No more manager screaming at you, no more wife crying.
Somedays I wish that the only weaponry humanity had was all hand-to-hand. I could even stomach longbows, due to the amount of training that goes into learning how to use them properly. I honestly think that while it would never get rid of the lunatics, it would cut down on the folks that just grab an easy handful of death as a fast answer. But the world doesn't work like that, and what's done cannot be undone.
All I can do is remind folks to stop and slow down, to actually try and think things through. (Myself included; having your surrogate grandmother shot down outside a courthouse when you're nine tends to polarize one's world view for quite some time. Especially when it was discovered that the known drug-user and abusive POS who had made death-threats against the woman in question had the gun with him throughout the enitre custody case, inside the damned courtroom They didn't even offer her a police escort to her car, and he was fairly frothing at the mouth and shouting when she got custody of the kids. Ahem. Yes, I'm still bitter about that.)
Learn to talk with yourself about the things that matter(and be honest with yourself!), and to take responsibility for your actions. That's most all that anyone can really ask for.
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My Opinion
Date: 2007-01-26 01:18 pm (UTC)I agree with you that people "should" use thier damn brains about gun ownership (or martial arts for that matter) and realize that it's not a force field. I agree a gun is a tool.
The problem with guns is that it makes impulsiveness easier. It is entirely possible that restraining that would help.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-26 01:26 pm (UTC)Re: My Opinion
Date: 2007-01-26 02:19 pm (UTC)Pre-caffinated.
I was TRYING to say that I agree with a lot of your points and they lead me to a somewhat different conclusion!
'Course it sure would be nice if we'd just decide to stop hurting each other, wouldn't it? I'd like to see that happen, meeself.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-26 02:41 pm (UTC)Amen!