I always carry around a fully loaded shotgun in case I need to blow someone's head off, you never know.
Yeah man, maybe next time that ### will think twice before he cuts me off in the Wendy's parking lot
I have heard commentators saying that heavier gun restrictions in America would just impede on law abiding citizens and not criminals. But in this case the shooter didn't have a criminal record or a record of psychiatric problems and acquired the guns through legal means.
Yeah, there's a hint of truth to that--which is why the focus can't just be acquisition, because that's a single point in the gun user's psychological and personal history. It's the sort of thing that needs to be constantly reevaluated, in more ways than we've got going for us right now.
Guys not all people with guns kill people...
I mean, look at me, I have like 30 guns and I've never killed a person, never will either, unless self-defence if someone breaks in my home to commit murder against me or my family. Which I doubt will happen because I have very few enemies in life.
You're right. Not all people with guns kill people. I spent enough of my youth on the shooting range with hunter friends to figure out that much.
But the issue is absolutely
not that simple. It's not a matter of mere possession and acquisition, it's a matter of what we do with people once we say they're allowed to possess arms. It's a matter of how we monitor the arms once acquired.
U.S. gun laws are very lax, and it shows. Compare us to some place like Switzerland, where, due to the reliance on a peoples militia, a pretty fair chunk of the population has military-force weapons. Gun possession is very widespread, but what keeps it all from going to hell is the comprehensiveness of the legislation surrounding gun use, and the extent to which the arms are monitored--not the people, but the arms themselves.
I'm not saying we should be Switzerland, and I'm definitely not saying their laws are without fault (ideally, I'd like the U.S. to stay far, far away from military conscription). But it's something to think about.
The fact that sizable fraction of our armed population is more concerned with having the right to carry and proving to the rest of us that 'guns don't kill people; people do' (which absolutely no one is contesting)... instead of slowing down and looking to see exactly where gun laws are screwing up that they've allowed people who would ever have to disposition to kill in anything other than self-defence to
act on that desire?
That's embarrassing.
So yeah, I'm looking at you, and what I see is a kid whose house is an armory, whose expressed on several occasions the will to use military-force arms on people who've been so bold as to tease you. And you may have every intent to use those weapons for self-defence, to protect your family--that's noble 'n' good 'n' whatever. But realize that any assailant who would threaten your family has access to the same weapons that you do, and he's going to be much more malevolent about things.
I'm looking at you, and I'm looking at anyone else who can look through the history of U.S. gun violence, frankly even
global gun violence, and then neglect to acknowledge the complexities of the situation. Because you're part of the problem.
So I broke my phone...
Poopie. So I guess I'll have to take my booty calls to Twitter, then?
