I Am A Proud Gun Owner, NRA Trained And Certified. Mass Shootings Would Not Happen Without Guns.
View this post on Hive: I Am A Proud Gun Owner, NRA Trained And Certified. Mass Shootings Would Not Happen Without Guns.
View this post on Hive: I Am A Proud Gun Owner, NRA Trained And Certified. Mass Shootings Would Not Happen Without Guns.
The sad part about this is that although you're right in just about everything you say, solving the problem by fixing social media/bullying/influences ... will never happen. Every generation has the 'problem of their day'. Those problems never get solved. Ever. They just move on to the next generation, morphing into something else, or being replaced by something as bad or worse.
Sure, fix the ills of the world and the mass shootings will stop. A great idea, but impossible.
This is why people go after the gun-toters, and guns in general. It's an comparably easy solution. It's a measurable quantity, a known target, and something they can aim at when they pull the trigger of anti-gun legislation.
Side note: I do like the fact that you note the context of a lot of those quotes from Thomas Jefferson. Everything looks different in context.
I just wanted a discussion.
If I hadn’t been in situations where I have had guns pulled on me, or felt like the government had my interest I wouldn’t need one.
Around here they shoot first then rob you.
pop pop pop “Thanks for your wallet.”
I agree with the liberty to protect yourself.
I can not pro gun by any stretch of the imagination but you’ve laid a really solid argument that I think most reasonable people would be able to respect and think about. You cut through the bullshit on both sides of the media debates. I hope more people start to realize that the two sides of any popular debate are usually exaggerated through mass media in order to radicalize both sides and keep people divided. It may be a slow process but we are waking up.
Thanks for this.
Thanks for the resteem and bringing me to a reasonable person, plus the conversation here is great too :)
I have to say kryptik, I can feel your passion in this piece of writing and that is usually when the best writing is done. IMHO, anyone who commits a mass shooting or unprovoked use of a weapon on another human being has some mental disorder. I don’t have the answers so I will just leave that as my comment. The US is definitely over medicated and I don’t think treatment and drugs are the answer. More often than not I would take a guess and say that many of the mass shootings are committed by those hopped up on pharmaceuticals.
Thanks for reading man.
There have been some really good comments on this post. Yours is one. I can say I disagree with the point in pharmaceuticals. Usually it’s never one problem but a combination of many.
Agreed with much of your post.
I'm afraid bullying just "is". It's not a "problem of the times", it's a reality everyone needs to simply deal with. Humans have in and out groups. Sack up and become the in group, or deal with your second-tier status.
Kids need more real talk today so they can make decisions accurate to reality, and less snowflake status.
You’re right. This was an in the moment rant. It’s just what came out.
I think social media has a huge influence. Or at the least the internet. This stuff has increased exponentially.
The owning a gun as self defense doesn't work that good, in spite of people feeling that a gun makes them Rambo. I live in Honduras which has
a) a very high number of weapons, this includes a lot of semi automatics like AR-15 and AK47.
b) also happens to have one of the highest murder rates in the world.
A good percentage of people murdered here are armed, but you actually can't do anything if the killer doesn't even give you a chance to touch your gun, he just shoots you dead and walks or probably drives away. Also remember, even if you do get to your gun, you probably will start thinking about the consequences of your killing someone, for example-prison or you'll go to hell(if you believe in that) and most of all how you will feel mentally after doing that, this will make you lose a second or two, the criminal facing you, on the other hand will probably not have those moral problems, he'll just shoot to kill.
I enjoyed your post and agreed with some of it but here is my take.
Back in the day when we lived up in the mountains of Montana we needed guns for hunting and for a while for the trouble making bears that the Park service kept dumping behind our property.
I sold all my guns years ago as I no longer hunt as it's just cheaper to go buy food at the supermarket. So my view is, that if you don't need a gun to hunt for food or are on the farm or living in the bush there is really no reason to own a gun unless you want to use it as a toy.
And therein is the problem. Americans have somehow been taught to treat guns as toys and really do not understand the consequences. Not to mention there is more than one gun for every person in the USA. All this leads to mass shootings.
I'm not sure it's wise to wait for decades for attitudes to change and for America to get a handle on the mentally ill, especially since Congress seems to want to eliminate health care as it is.
To me the logical step would be to remove hand guns & weapons of war, Semi & automatic weapons. And leave the rest to those that actually need them.
Now living in Canada and I could get a gun any time I wanted. But I would now have to take a gun safety course & prove that I had the means to store them properly. The enthusiasts I know leave their guns in storage at the range.
We have people take test to drive why not to own a gun?
So in closing do we want the toys that kill kids or kids that reach adulthood?
I sympathize with your view.
I really wish I felt the same way.
I grew up with guns as a kid on the farm. We hunted for food, protected our livestock, etc.
Didn’t have one or feel the need for one for years until I lived in an urban setting where I’ve hand a gun pulled on me a few times this past year.
Thanks for reading and adding to the discussion. That’s all I wanted was a real discussion.
I wish you could feel the same way.
Living in fear for your life so much that you feel you need a gun for protection is no way to live, in my opinion. Canadians have the luxury of not having this fear. I wish that for my fellow Americans
Years back Australia rounded up all all hand guns, & automatic and semi automatic weapons and let everyone keep the rest and guess what they have fewer killings.
If hand guns were banned you would not have the need. Whether America has the morality and conscious to do so remains to be seen.
I too enjoy a rational discussion, which seems to be a rarity these days.
In the end it all boils down to money. The first question we as a society should be asking when we discussing many current issues, What's more important? Profits or People?
So I think I pretty much agree with everything you've said, so I'll try to add something new. I grew up with guns on the farm, same as you, and have guns now. While I have never had a gun pulled on me, it definitely gives me a feeling of comfort knowing I would be able to defend myself and family if someone were to break in.
Related topic: You mention finding the underlying problems, which I absolutely agree with. At the same time, I don't think it will be simple and could take years to really get to the bottom of it, if ever. What are your thoughts on allowing teachers to have guns in the classroom? Now I am not saying it's a free for all, any teacher who wants one gets one. Obviously, there would have to be hours of training and only teachers who were comfortable and proved themselves would have access.
I know this brings up another point, having more guns in schools is a danger. I totally understand that. So my solution would be the guns would be locked in a safe in the classrooms. If there were to be an active shooter, the principal, vice principal, and resource officer would have like a code that one of them would use to unlock the safes, the teacher would then go and put another code to get it to open.
Thoughts/comments on any of this/arming teachers in general?
I haven’t given it enough thought to be honest.
More guns near kids seems bad.
Nothing to defend innocent children sounds bad too.
One thing I am for sure on is that it would either work or fail magnificently.
Absolutely, I would like to think it would work. I mean, at least it would be something different rather than the failing ways now. But regardless, it's all a shitty situation
I don't own a gun (unfortunately), but I absolutely agree with and promote gun ownership for the sake of defense against tyranny. People like to pretend that an armed citizenry would stand no chance against a tyrannical government, but I don't think there's any evidence to support that idea, especially when you notice that effective tyrannies reeeeeeealy like to disarm the citizens before going full-Stalin.
Always.
Also they seem to be having a relatively tough time with less sophisticated enemies. Look at the terrorists. Or Vietnam.
I wish I lived in a world with overseers I could trust.
It is easier. But you know, the tyrant always stands and falls with the army. If the army steps aside, no tyrant can defend his palace even against unarmed citizens. That is the reason why countries, the more tyrannical they are, the more the pay for the army.
But let me ask another way: 33'000 people dies in the US in the last year because of guns. That makes more then 3 million people in the last century. Don't you think it needs a bloody bloody tyrant to reach that numbers? One who is backed by the army, an military that consists of everyday people? How could that happen?