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In the wake of yet another mass murder in America, I’m jumping into the roiling waters to ask why we continue to wring our hands over gun control. Well, actually, I have a pretty good idea why. Much of the credit for that can be summed up in three letters. But when will we hold our legislators accountable for reasonable legislation?
Let’s deconstruct one of the cute little memes that pepper social media.
Yes, if a madman wants to kill innocent people, he or she will find a way. Unless we make it too damned hard. And we can sure as heck reduce the number of people that fall victim.
Killers don’t need guns to kill people. Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer. And after Timothy McVeigh ambushed the Federal Building where 168 people were killed, the Federal Government got busy preventing the recurrence of such an event by reconfiguring access to all federal buildings and no such event has occurred in the 22 years since McVeigh’s mess.
9-11 terrorists used box cutters and planes. And have you tried to board a plane lately? Good luck getting fingernail clippers on board, much less box cutters, sabers, or kitchen knives.
The Nazis used cyanide gas. And our government, terrorists, or Korea could spike our water supply, release toxins like sarin gas, or simply hit that infamous red button, thereby destroying our entire planet. But that is why we regulate access to things like water and power systems. And that is why we fight to have a free press that can and will blow the lid off activities that could lead to such tragedies.
Taking guns from innocent people will not protect innocent people. No one, may I repeat that? No one is proposing or advocating taking guns from innocent people. Guns are tools, like cars, like stoves, like Sudafed. Guns also have a huge potential to do harm, as do cars, alcohol, Sudafed. We regulate cars and where and how cars may be used. We regulate who can buy alcohol. We even regulate who can buy Sudafed. This does not mean people aren’t allowed to use cars, alcohol, Sudafed. It simply means that to use these potentially hazardous materials, people must meet certain requirements.
The problem is not guns. Its a Godless Society. Oh this one really takes the cake. It is true, the problem is not guns. The problem is the people using the guns and the reasons they use guns and the types of guns they use, which is precisely why it is so important to regulate who buys guns and what kinds of guns they buy.
And if a Godless Society is the problem, maybe I should build myself an arsenal for the day when the Army of God comes calling for my Godless self. If you respect God, surely you believe he gave us brains so that we could think and make reasoned choices about how to keep each other safe.
Rangewriter 
They won’t even consider outlawing bum stocks. Let alone automatic weapons.
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It’s madness. We don’t need Korea. We’ll just kill each other.
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I know a lot of “godless” people who would never in a million years harm others with guns, fertilizer, rocks or bows and arrows. History is full of godly people who did.
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Amen to that.
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Each time this occurs in the United States it is followed by a lot of handwringing with politicians, the police, and the media wailing “Why?” Yet we don’t question the psychological state of a robber in cases of robbery. Nobody asks why. All we do is check our locks, because we know why. And when the perpetrator is caught and arrested, the police don’t spend hours shaking their heads, puzzling why, even in cases of grand larceny. The robber stole what he did because he could, so we do our best to prevent from happening again. Even though we might not like having to lock our doors and bar our windows all the time, we just do it.
Knowing the motivation behind one mass murder is never going to stop the next in that same way investing in a better security system is going to help prevent another robbery. Yet one sure way of stopping the number of mass murders in the U.S., is to adopt similar gun laws to much of the rest of the world.
Even with a population of over 510 million – not far off 200 million more than the U.S. – and with far more terrorist attacks, there are far fewer victims of terrorism than there are people killed by guns in the U.S. There are far fewer people that die as a result of terrorism in Europe than die at the hands of U.S. police officers in America, often because the police say they feared the suspect was armed.
Mass killings happen on the scale they do in the U.S. for one reason, and it’s the same reason as the majority of crimes: the perpetrators do it because they can. A window had been left open in a house robbery, or a car door not locked in a car theft. They get in because they can. Or, in the case of mass murder, it was just too easy to buy a small armoury of military-grade weapons, and lots of ammunition, without so much as the lifting of an eyebrow.
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Absolutely. To the bone analysis. If only the USA was not owned by the NRA.
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I believe the U.S. is the most highly armed industrial nation and yet it has the most gun deaths. Hmmmm. How can the NRA not put those two things together ?
But we are all “lefties” in this conversation and sadly you are singing to the choir.
I wish someone would go back in time and scratch out that “right to bear arms” shit.
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I’m sure there are some strong gun advocates among my readers. I’m surprised they have not chimed in. I was also surprised by the absence of dyed-in-the-wool “patriots” regarding my post about protest. But I guess, in essence, I am preaching to the choir.
The NRA doesn’t listen because it’s not being paid to listen. The NRA is being paid to continue the fear and fury campaign that drives insecure and misguided Americans to think that they will be safer with a personal arsenal than without.
Sigh.
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I am complete agreement with you. I even think that guns hurt people. No guns, no one would be killed by guns. However, we cannot remove everything that can be used to kill people, can we. Nevertheless, being a foreigner, I have never understood the US policy on guns…
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Yes, Otto, and I’m not even suggesting that all guns be removed from US citizens. All I’m asking for is some sort of sane regulation on the types of guns that citizens may own. And of course we can’t remove every deadly weapon, but we can reduce the mayhem by removing high powered guns with crazy fast reloading capabilities. A knife can kill, but only one at a time.
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