Before you get on your soapbox screaming the talking points you were spoon fed … just hear me out. The current rise in school shootings and random mass shootings are a problem. We, as a nation, need to address it. Nobody I’ve spoke with has argued that it’s not a problem. The only thing that people are arguing is how we go about solving it … and the gun control groups think too many guns are the problem.
There are roughly 327 million people in the United States. There are roughly 393 million guns in the United States. If you’re part of the gun control group you’re already forming your “there are more guns than people!?” comment … or … “why do we need so many guns!?” comment.
Okay, let’s look at that. First and foremost, it has to do with your outlook on guns. If you believe that guns are inherently evil then you can’t imagine why anyone would need a gun and if someone has to have one, they certainly don’t need more than one. Sometimes people own more than one of something. There’s a lot of people who own multiple cars. Is that ridiculous? Why do people scream about owning multiple guns and not multiple cars?
“Well … cars don’t kill people.“
You are absolutely right! Cars don’t kill people … it’s exactly the same with guns. I don’t know of a single gun that loaded itself and walked out and started shooting itself. And if you’re going to try to argue that cars don’t kill as many people as guns. You’re wrong. Nearly 1,250,000 people die in road crashes each year. Gun deaths are 33,000 per year. Why aren’t people screaming about outlawing cars? It’s not their agenda.
“Those are accidents and people didn’t intend to kill people.“
Really!? How many times do you hear of a person who killed someone because they were driving drunk? The answer is daily. 29 people die everyday from alcohol related car accidents. I think it’s safe to say that everyone knows you shouldn’t be driving while intoxicated … yet everyday people get behind the wheel drunk. That seems like intent to me and it causes 10,000 deaths annually.
So back to why are there more guns than people? Well, if you are a gun owner, it’s not unusual to own more than one gun. Much like cars, if you like them … you might want to own a few of them. If you’re anti-gun then there is no way you would understand that. By default, you think owning 1 gun is absurd … but other people don’t share that viewpoint and that’s what’s amazing about this country. People are allowed to have different opinions.
So I ask you … with more guns than people in the United States … there should be shootings on every corner, every day, correct? But there aren’t. Why not? Of the gun owning population, the majority are law abiding citizens. People own them so they can protect themselves. I’m not going to spew some bullshit fact about how guns are mostly used for hunting. They’re not! They’re mainly purchased for self-defense.
News Flash! There are a lot of bad people in the world. People who would not think twice about killing you for the $20 in your pocket. People want to feel like they can protect themselves in a society that seems to be deteriorating. If a person is breaking into your house with a gun, you don’t want to be confronting them with a bat. I think most people would agree.
“Banning assault rifles would lessen the amount injured.“
If a person is hellbent on destruction, assault rifle bans aren’t going to stop them from killing. Handguns can do just as much damage and they are easier to conceal. That argument is weak and misguided. You can buy 30 round magazines for a Glock.
“If there were no guns, then people wouldn’t have to worry about violent crimes.“
Really!? Recently a deranged asshole in Orange County went on a crime spree where he violently stabbed 6 people, killing 4 of them in one day before he was arrested. He didn’t have a gun and he was still able to kill 4 innocent people before he was caught. As much as people want to say guns are the issue … because they have an agenda they are pushing … the simple fact is that people are the problem. You can take away guns but then the psychopaths will just start using knives or explosives to kill others.
Guns are just a tool like anything else. Effective in the right hands and destructive in the wrong hands. Are we going to talk about outlawing kitchen knives now because of the above mentioned incident? Highly unlikely. Are we going to start banning cars because they cause 1.25 million deaths a year? Highly unlikely. So why the push for banning guns and nothing else? It’s people pushing an agenda and a much easier talking point than addressing the real fact that our society is creating a lot of fucked up crazy people and we don’t know why?
Everybody has their beliefs why people do these horrible things:
Violent video games – Really!? Millions of people play violent video games, so why aren’t there more people carrying out these horrendous tragedies.
Gay marriage – it’s deteriorating our society. If a gay person marries, it doesn’t affect your fucking life and certainly doesn’t give you the right to kill people because you don’t agree with their lifestyle.
Removing God from our schools – it’s a feel good statement for the religious right but John Wayne Gacy was a devout catholic and at age 18 thought about becoming a priest. Having religion in your schools and in your life is not a fail safe.
The simple fact is that people are the problem … not guns. There is just something wrong with certain people’s brains that drive them to do this shit and there seems to be more people with this defect lately.
I understand how traumatizing it can be when a mass shooting occurs but don’t go straight for the gun ban bullshit because it’s not the real problem. There are a lot of people with guns in the United States and 0.000005% use a gun to do these horrible acts. In 2018 there were 1,661 deaths attributed to mass shootings. That’s less than 1% of 1% of 1%. Understandably, 1 incident is too much but it’s a very, very small amount of our population that does this. So because of this small percentage … the 99.9% of law abiding citizens get their guns taken away. How about we focus on the small percentage with the problem instead.
Gun violence is traumatizing but do you think that the trauma felt by the stabbing victims and their families mentioned above is any less traumatizing because a knife was used instead of a gun? How traumatizing was it for the poor people who lost loved ones in the Oklahoma City bombing perpetrated by that asshole McVeigh. Guns were not used in either incident but nobody would argue that they weren’t as awful of a crime.
I know people want action or something done after something tragic occurs but passing some knee-jerk, half thought out law is not the answer. People are scared, I get it … but blindly backing people pushing an agenda is not the right way to go about solving the real issue of crazy people with no regard for their fellow man’s well being.
“Banning assault rifles will help.“
Fine, you want to ban assault rifles. Then murderers move to high capacity magazines for handguns. Ban the high capacity magazines. Okay, now they buy 50 regular magazines. Ban owning multiple magazines. Okay, now murderers bring multiple weapons to carry out their carnage. Make it so you can only own 1 gun. You can see the problem with this argument. It’s an infinite regress argument. Basically it just leads to no one owning guns and you can’t un-create guns. Criminals are going to have guns regardless of what laws you pass. The only ones you would be taking the guns away from would be the law abiding citizens who now would become easy targets for people who want to do bad things.
I don’t claim to have the answer to end the mass shootings that are occurring but I also know banning “assault rifles” is not going to end it. People can do just as much damage with a handgun as they can with a rifle. There are a plethora of instruments that one can cause mass killings with if someone is truly hellbent on doing it and that’s the problem … why do people want to kill innocent people?
The truth of the matter is there are an increasing amount of people in this country that suffer from mental issues and are losing their shit. And please don’t email me about how lots of people have mental issues and don’t shoot up stores. No shit! I know that. I’m not trying to disparage anyone going through mental health issues but some people who need treatment are not getting it and these terrible tragedies are the result.
I’m sure there are many of you after reading this who think that I’m just towing the NRA line. I’m not. I think background checks are a great idea but I don’t agree with the idea that we need to keep making useless laws to complicate things for 99.9% of hard working law abiding citizens. They are just trying to make sure they have some sort of protection from any crazy fucking person they may be unfortunate enough to encounter in their life. The numbers show that most people who own guns cause no problems. It’s the person who feels like killing people is the answer to their problems and we need to focus on finding out how to solve that mindset. Taking away guns does not fix that.
TodaysPetPeeve 