By now, most of you should have heard, read about, and been sickened by the shootings at Virginia Tech the other day. Like you, I've had some time to absorb this event and, unlike a lot of you, I'm going to vent about it openly.
First off, we have a token conservative here in the office. Nice enough guy, but I think he downloads his personality of the day from the O'Reilly Factor. Anyway, seeing as this is the second day I've had to hear his thoughts on how even nuns and infants should walk around in public like John Rambo, I've really just about had it.
Look, arming people to the teeth will not deter lunatics with handguns or even a long piece of rebar. Lunatics are, well, crazy. There is no flow chart of if...then with a nutcase. They just lash out.
As for making schools, churches, hospitals and other currently "safe" environments into replicas of armed-to-the-teeth Alamo fortresses, that too is bullshit. There's a reason we keep guns away from students, learning environments, holy places, preschools, and places where people are to be healed spiritually, physically, and otherwise. That reason? Common sense.
And here may be the core of my problem with the all guns all the time crowd. Look, at the core this is a conservative argument of non-governmental interference. Okay, let's see how well that works. We don't teach civics in school, thus people - when they even participate - only vote by party line or by what a church circular or TV talking head tells them to. We get irresponsible government.
We don't properly teach ethics in school, and consumer ed is a joke in most places. Thus, we get the perfect storm that is the current mortgage problem where lenders try to make a buck and homeowners don't know what the hell their fine print means on the rare occasion they even read it.
Don't start me on sex ed (or more importantly, the lack of it). This leads to unplanned pregnancies and kids (and adults) with zero mechanism to raise children properly. Bored kids with no decent upbringing. Columbine came to mind during our discussions here this morning.
As for guns, you can be completely bonkers but not have a criminal record and you can buy out a gun show. Every indication about the VT shooter shows that neighbors, friends, teachers, fellow students, etc., basically most people in contact with him, knew he had issues. But he got to not only buy a couple guns and some ammo, but conservatives don't have an issue with it.
I do. I don't want black suited feds busting in on folks and taking their guns. Hell, we're not even doing it in Iraq and look how well *that* works for us. That said, I don't even like how easy it is for morons to get a driver's license, so I have issues with our current setup.
What is wrong with restricting handguns to just a few plausible instances? I mean, I've never liked that damn things and don't see a reason for their need to be everwhere in our culture.
Seriously, get a shotgun and shut up.
But actually seriously, what's wrong with having an honest discussion on what home and personal protection is, or at least should be? I don't think ANYONE should have a gun without going to at least a three day gun education school, with refresher courses ever 10 years or even sooner. And, as stated earlier, will someone give me a real reason why we have handguns all over the place?
Have a shotgun, have a rifle. I just don't see the reason to be Dirty Harry, or have an Uzi, or an MP-5 in most instances. It ain't like you can rise up with your anti-government militia and take over Washington. For every AR-15 the GOP/NRA wants everyone to have, I guarantee the feds will have cluster bomb dropping Predators or somesuch reaction.
Don't get me wrong, I like guns in a passing sense. I just don't see why I should be rabidly advocating a hands-off, let everyone do whatever they want to do approach to guns.
Come on, the same people who want open gun ownership want to ban abortion, ban free speech, burn books, censor music, ban funding to art and music in schools, ban funding for public schools, give money to Halliburton and Blackwater with no oversight, ban stem cell research, rig voting machines, imprison people without charging them, legalize torture, strip your civil rights, ban other languages, racially profile, ban non-Christian religions, create fear of everything, and generally meddle with your personal, private lives in the name of a hateful god.
But you can have all the Glocks you want.
Consider the source.
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