“… and the smell of gunsmoke”: A line from the opening theme voice over for the “Gunsmoke” radio program. This was broadcast for decades, even during the first years of the TV show. Both series were long lived and popular.
I wish there were a way to stamp out binary thinking. Life is not just zeros and ones.
If people approach issues as “you are either totally with me or totally against me” then win-win solutions are impossible.
And so it is with gun control. If you oppose high-rate-of-fire, high-round-clip weapons then you want to disarm every law-abiding citizen in the United States.
A handgun is a perfectly logical weapon for self-protection. I happen to live in a safe neighborhood where I can rely on law enforcement to keep me safe, so I don’t need one. I can’t make that claim for everyone.
A rifle is a perfectly logical weapon for hunting. Some people depend on hunting as part of their subsistence and some do it for sport. Given the overpopulation of some species (due to our removal of their natural predators), hunting for sport often has a purpose. I don’t hunt.
An AR-15 is a perfectly logical weapon for mass murder. It has only one purpose: to kill as many things as possible in as short a period as possible. It makes no sense either for self-defense and even less sense for hunting.
One of the arguments used by a certain political party and the NRA is that “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” And this is true. Guns just make killing people, en masse, a lot easier.
They also argue that mentally-ill people kill people and weapons should be denied these people. Also sometimes true.
White Supremacy is NOT a mental illness. Post-partum depression is. So according to this logic a woman can be denied a weapon to protect herself and her children.
At the time the Second Amendment was passed, a highly-trained and experienced gunman could fire off 3 rounds a minute. That means that he could kill, at most, three people per minute provided that the victims stand around and do nothing while he’s reloading.
Modern, military-grade weapons make it possible for even an inexperienced gunman to kill dozens of people a minute.
Firearms are only weapons when used against people. 100 rnd. magazines are either for people who cannot hit what is in their sights or for people who fear a mass invasion and those tend to be fairly paranoid individuals. There’s middle ground for this discussion, miles and miles of it, despite what Wayne LaPierre says and despite what someone who wants to ban all firearms says. Responsible people handling reasonable firearms, and keeping them secure are rarely the problem. Unfortunately in this country sanity and responsibility are getting to be shorter in supply.
In rebuttal, if you want to talk of mass murder of unarmed civilians, I give you the United States Government of the Aboriginal Americans. The main reason for high capacity, weapons ownership. And as for further killing, I’ll give you just one name of many, who didn’t use an gun. Timothy McVeigh. You don’t need a gun.
A# 466 about 5 years ago
“… and the smell of gunsmoke”: A line from the opening theme voice over for the “Gunsmoke” radio program. This was broadcast for decades, even during the first years of the TV show. Both series were long lived and popular.
DanFlak about 5 years ago
I wish there were a way to stamp out binary thinking. Life is not just zeros and ones.
If people approach issues as “you are either totally with me or totally against me” then win-win solutions are impossible.
And so it is with gun control. If you oppose high-rate-of-fire, high-round-clip weapons then you want to disarm every law-abiding citizen in the United States.
A handgun is a perfectly logical weapon for self-protection. I happen to live in a safe neighborhood where I can rely on law enforcement to keep me safe, so I don’t need one. I can’t make that claim for everyone.
A rifle is a perfectly logical weapon for hunting. Some people depend on hunting as part of their subsistence and some do it for sport. Given the overpopulation of some species (due to our removal of their natural predators), hunting for sport often has a purpose. I don’t hunt.
An AR-15 is a perfectly logical weapon for mass murder. It has only one purpose: to kill as many things as possible in as short a period as possible. It makes no sense either for self-defense and even less sense for hunting.
DanFlak about 5 years ago
One of the arguments used by a certain political party and the NRA is that “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” And this is true. Guns just make killing people, en masse, a lot easier.
They also argue that mentally-ill people kill people and weapons should be denied these people. Also sometimes true.
White Supremacy is NOT a mental illness. Post-partum depression is. So according to this logic a woman can be denied a weapon to protect herself and her children.
DanFlak about 5 years ago
OK, one last argument.
At the time the Second Amendment was passed, a highly-trained and experienced gunman could fire off 3 rounds a minute. That means that he could kill, at most, three people per minute provided that the victims stand around and do nothing while he’s reloading.
Modern, military-grade weapons make it possible for even an inexperienced gunman to kill dozens of people a minute.
Display about 5 years ago
Firearms are only weapons when used against people. 100 rnd. magazines are either for people who cannot hit what is in their sights or for people who fear a mass invasion and those tend to be fairly paranoid individuals. There’s middle ground for this discussion, miles and miles of it, despite what Wayne LaPierre says and despite what someone who wants to ban all firearms says. Responsible people handling reasonable firearms, and keeping them secure are rarely the problem. Unfortunately in this country sanity and responsibility are getting to be shorter in supply.
Martin 78 about 5 years ago
In rebuttal, if you want to talk of mass murder of unarmed civilians, I give you the United States Government of the Aboriginal Americans. The main reason for high capacity, weapons ownership. And as for further killing, I’ll give you just one name of many, who didn’t use an gun. Timothy McVeigh. You don’t need a gun.