So this will usually be funny but I feel like I need to address the elephant in the room and try and bring my version of sanity to the gun control "crisis" at the front of so many minds.
First of all, stop yelling. Both sides. Stop it. It's a touchy issue and both sides are completely convinced they are right and yelling isn't helping. We need to listen to each other. I guarantee you will hear things you do not want to hear but the "ban all guns now" side needs to know that the "you can't have mine" side isn't happy about mass murders by mass morons either. And the "you can't have mine" side needs to hear that the way things are isn't working and it's not enough to say, "wish harder."
Full disclosure. I am a supporter of the second amendment. I own a gun which you cannot have. It is not an AR-15, if you are someone to whom that is important and I am not a member of the NRA lest you think I am marching to their orders. I too believe something needs to be done. I think that's our starting point.
I have to admit incredulity that the media (and I do not include all people on the left agree with the idiots in the media) are on a mission to make every shooting a law-abiding conservative problem. That bothers me. I take it personally. I am a husband, a father, an uncle, a son, a brother and a citizen of the same country you are. I've never killed anyone. I don't want to but I will if they threaten to do harm to me or my family. It hurts me when schools, bars and crowds of any kind are shot up by deranged and misguided, twisted pervs who've gotten their hands on a weapon.
There are some who will disagree but I am not a deranged and misguided, twisted perv but I do have a weapon and I want the killing to stop. I am open to considering anti-gun owners ideas but I can already tell you I reject the extreme solutions and if you yell at me I am through with you.
I don't know all the laws we already have in place but I know the lack of enforcement of those seems to be a huge part of the problem. Can I suggest we start with a review of those and some analysis on how to enforce those?
From there my initial suggestions which, for God's sake, are not nonnegotiable lines in the sand, include you being open minded about the arguments for conceal carry and the abolition of gun free zones (which scream "target" to me).
I have lots more thoughts but I'm interested to see if I have any support. I know I'll have lots of resistance. Just please try and be respectful if you can be. Not to be disrespectful myself but I know some of you can't handle that. Let's solve this world problem and move on to more humorous subjects like illegal immigration and transgender bathrooms (c'mon, you gotta' see humor there).
I agree with the spirit of your message. What this country needs, among many things, is a return to civility. I caution you, however, in classifying those of us who are trying to defend our 2nd Amendment rights against a dishonest press and equally dishonest politicians and academicians as if we are equally unreasonable. The Left has succeeded in portraying the NRA and its supporters as intransigent and uncompromising because we resist all efforts to add new gun laws. This resistance comes from the experiences of the past. The 2nd Amendment does not need to be amended. We resist so-called "new" laws because they are attempts to take away what is already a settled right---no compromise is appropriate. We do not need gun control. We need to control criminals, terrorists, and the criminally insane. We must resist the insidious, relentless attempts of the Left to destroy our freedoms by a thousand little cuts.
ReplyDeleteI have never owned a gun. Fired one only a few times; loved it! Never have hit anyone first, but have lost only one fight. I am my own weapon by choice, but can't effectively discipline my dog if it requires physical application. But I will take a billet to protect the Second Amendment. It's. Big, rough, rugged world out there, beyond the "urban scope" of the LEFT's march to unarmed America. Guns are needed to thwart both nature and greed; predators alike seeking self-fulfillment. Show me a Democrat raised on a ranch, who was schooled in 4H, and served in the military. It's an "urban" issue. Not an American issue. But when you surrender your weapons, the legal precedent will lead to other consolations. A gun-free society is defenseless. Breeds reliance ... on the government.
ReplyDeleteI prefer a "home on the (gun) range." Great column!
You preach of diplomacy. The LEFT is earless. And apparently mindless.