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An open letter to gun advocates
Dear gun advocates,That would be I :) Et moi. Me three, though I don't own or carry one. Some of you want pistols to protect yourselves and your families. Some are vigilantes, like George Zimmerman, who want to keep neighborhoods safe. Some are police, some of whom need to use weapons more responsibly. Some shoot defenseless animals for sport. Feral hogs cause half a billion dollars in damage annually in Texas. I don't know what the figures are for other states but a guy brought down a 500-pounder in North Carolina that had destroyed ten acres of crops not too long ago. He used an AR-15 chambered in .308, but you probably never heard about it because he didn't use the gun to shoot up a school or a park. A boy in Alabama killed one that weighed over a thousand pounds with a pistol. He didn't shoot anybody up, either. Charging wild boars aren't "defenseless," by the way. And some own military weapons that can mow down large groups of schoolchildren or moviegoers. Still haven't hit on my own category. Oh, well. Maybe next time. Legal weapons are one shot at a time, not full auto-gettem. "Semi-automatic" means that a round gets chambered after the last one's fired. But "semi-automatic" sure sounds scary, doesn't it? Brrrr! I am writing to this last group. Please, help me understand. That last category is done talking, dearie. They just want blood. It may be a constitutional right to bear arms, but the Constitution said we have the right to bear arms in a militia, those arms being muskets at the time, guns that you could shoot once, taking much time to reload. Not AK-47 weapons. Failed to understand the difference between being a "recruit" and being a volunteer in a self defense force, huh? When the 2nd Amendment was written it was intended to include sufficient ammunition and arms. Including the AK. Please, help me understand. Today's bozo boy shooting up his school cafeteria has nothing to do with the second amendment and everything to do with growing to the ripe old age of 14 playing "Call of Duty" and watching movies like The Matrix. Why these weapons? Are you waiting for a once-rare-but-now-more-frequent mass shooting or another shooting so you can save the day, planning to kill the “bad" guys? How many times might you have that opportunity in life? One can always hope, I suppose. The notion of point defense is lost as well, I guess. Dunno about people with handguns saving the day, but it seems to me that if you can counter a bad guy using a firearm with your own firearm -- even if it is an AK -- and you survive, you can count that as a good thing. The writer assumes nothing but malign beliefs and influences for gun owners and advocates. There's not one ounce of willingness to listen or to see the other side. It's not an 'open letter', it's the usual lecture... Have you listened to police chiefs who say that they don’t want their staff entering an active shooting scene where “bad” shooters and “good” shooters are battling around innocent families and children, unable to discern who is bad or good? Do you think you can shoot your AK-47 and hit only the bad people instead of innocents as well? Shot placement, baby. It's where it's at. And besides, I have yet to read of any encounter in which a civilian on civilian gun fight has lasted for more than two minutes, and I doubt I ever will. Please, help me understand. He's trying real hard not to. The police might mistake you for a “bad” shooter. The might shoot and kill you. The investigators will also need to determine if your bullets killed the innocent. Are you asking to be imprisoned? They may make that mistake indeed, but by the time they arrive, the shooting is over. And if you can hold your fire for a sufficient time to engage only the bad actors, then your only problem should be taking cover and not getting shot. Firing a gun isn't about slapping in the mag and blasting away. You have to discriminate among targets, which in an environment in which only one shooter is shooting, should be easy to do. Dunno how pistol carriers train, but they should already know that their weapon should not be fired until the background is clear, but they also should always scan the background, including their rear, for additional shooters. Maybe you just don’t feel very good about yourself or your life, and you need to boost your confidence and self-esteem by openly carrying a giant weapon, hiding your disappointing body parts and/or your psychological distress. Maybe you really are fearful, thinking that Muslims are taking over this country, and if not Muslims, that perhaps black and brown men and boys are wreaking havoc. Maybe you have been severely traumatized and need help. Decent people don't talk about private parts, or private matters as a means of resolving public policy differences. Overreaching and overbearing statists such as yourself have a large enough bullhorn, that they do with with impunity. In the matter of the right to keep and bear arms, it is a notion that is well outside the polite conversation of firearms. I still don’t understand. Perhaps because you don't want to? Or perhaps you're just dull? Who makes you God? Who makes a person shooting at the rest of us God? Nor does one need to be a god to defend oneself, one's loved one, or the community, nor does one need to be a god to leave other good people alone. Even if you were in a challenging shooting situation, are you the judge or jury? Maybe just a self-defender. Self defense has been a part of English Common Law for so long that I don't believe it was ever passed as a statute; it's a mere matter of common sense. Litigation has always centered on the situation and whether the amount of force used was justifiable... Can you sort out facts in the heat of the moment instead of using our justice system to work through an agreed-upon process for determining innocence, guilt and sentencing? A shooting situation isn't about the law. It is about surviving a hostile shooter. I would rather let the legal industry sort out my culpability in a gunfight after the threat is abated -- after I have used a firearm to quell a threat. A shooting situation is one that any reasonable person tries to avoid. Sometimes they're thrust upon us and we have to react quickly, having been reminded in the past of the aphorism, "when seconds count, the police are minutes away." We can always sort out guilt. If we're still alive... I, for one, am extremely frightened of you because you hold my and my family’s lives in your hands when you carry your weapons of mass destruction around our schools, parks and churches. "Weapons of mass destruction" are chemical, biological, and radiological (i.e., atomic weapons). You don't get a permit to lug an AK-47 around in public. It has quite a bit of symbology around some violent factions, kind of a magic totem. See, for instance, Hezbollah's flag, which features a disembodied arm waving an AK-47. Tiny children find your weapons, thinking they are toys, forever ruining or ending their own or others’ lives. Who gave you the right to endanger so many people? Frightened, are you? I have a solution. Get a gun, learn to use it and then train to use it in a gunfight. That children find guns toys are the fault of parents who refused to put in effort to teach their children about the utility and safe use of a firearm. Whenever someone is losing an argument it's time to invoke "the children". That's justification for all sorts of nefarious nonsense that would never stand the light of cold reason and common sense. Yup, he invoked the children. He's lost, and he doesn't know it. Please help us all understand your thinking, feelings or logic. And then, maybe we can have a safe and honest conversation about your fear, your anger and your obsession with power, control and violence. "Honest conversation." With the idea that gun owners are angry, obsessed with power and control that you have expressed, without even knowing an individual gun owner, I very much doubt any honesty is on the agenda. I suspect yet another lecture about firearms is. And that won't be honest. Posted by: badanov 2016-03-01 |
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