“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” - 2nd Amendment, US constitution
America and the Gun Culture, that is the focus of tonight's talking points. America lives in a gun culture, we do. No I am not going all Michael Moore on you. That guy is a total fascist moron and they way he went about gun in his sadly award winning movie “Bowling for Columbine” was the wrong way. There is nothing wrong with guns. Guns are just fine and as the old adage goes “guns don't kill people, people kill people.” That is pretty much the gist of my argument. But seeing as how people love it when I expand on my arguments, I shall do so.
If you look at the Gun culture in America from a sporting perspective there is nothing wrong with hunting, skeet shooting, or that fun winter Olympic sport where they use guns and cross country skiing. These are all people, with the minor exception of one Dick Cheney, who use the guns are they are intended. The hunting rifle was made to hunt, the hunter hunts with the hunting rifle, so there is no deviation from the gun's original intentions. What people need to realize is that guns are a tool. A Tool by definition, according to Merriam-Webster online, is “a hand held device that aids in accomplishing a task”. So when a gun is used by a hunter to hunt, a police officer to defend the public trust, a soldier to defeat the bad guy, or a father of 4 to defend his house from attacker or burglars that gun is then a tool that is being used well within its reason for existence.
It is when a gun is used outside of those parameters that the gun then becomes a weapon with malicious intent. Say you have a gun sitting on a table in the middle of a room. If a police officer picks up a gun the gun is a tool and there is no reason to fear its use. Now if a murderer picks up that very same gun with the intent to kill, only then is it a weapon.
So where is the evidence that there is a gun problem in America? Look at the numbers. But before I do I should lay out a couple things clearly for the sake of full disclosure: 1.) I was the witness/victim of a violent shooting about 11 years ago in high school, 2.) my basic premise on gun control is that it is not the guns that are the problem but the people using them and what type of guns they are using.
So back to the numbers. If you take the populations of Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Australia, Canada, Brazil you have a population that EXCEEDS the United States by roughly 80,000,000 (380,000,000 versus 307,000,000). The population figures were gathered by various sources that include Google's Public Data, Us Census, Wikipedia, Fox News, and CNN. The numbers were rounded and the data is from several different years, but finding all this data from the same year was a bit daunting.
For both sets, US and international, take the overall population. Divide by 100,000. then take that number and times it by the combined gun death stat (per 100,000) and you see that even with a population 80,000,000 bigger than our own, those 7 countries have together have HALF the gun deaths the US does. Now according to an Episode of the West Wing “Bartlett's Third State of the Union”
“But I do know that if you combine the populations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Australia you've got a population roughly the size
of the United States. We had 32,000 gun deaths last year and they had 112. Do you think it's
because Americans are more homicidal by nature? Or do you think it's because those guys have
gun control laws.”
So we now go into the area of discussion that sometimes can generate the most debate: Gun control laws in America. Are there enough? Do we need more? Less? Or can we stand to actually enforce the ones that are already in place?
What are some of the ones that are in place? The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 increased the age at which you could legally buy a gun to 21 and created a national licensing system. The Gun Control Act of 1968 regulated the firearms industry and focuses mainly on regulating interstate commerce in firearms. The famous “Brady Bill” enacted in 1993 created the 5-day waiting period so a background check could be conducted on an individual buying a firearm.
But then you have to trust that places that sell guns will follow the laws or don't participate in the black market gun trade. Then there is the issue of gun shows which operate under a different set of rules than brick and mortar stores do. There you don't even need a background check! In some states you can walk in, buy the gun, the ammo, and walk out all in the same day.
Then there are the wide variety of the types of guns that private non-military citizens like Uncle Cletus can get their hands on. Take for instance this beauty: The HK 21 UBF Shorty Belt-fed Machine Gun for only 40,000$. http://www.impactguns.com/store/MGT-HK21SHORTY.html Described as a rare “beauty,” this gun can send rounds down range at a whopping 850 rounds per minute.
For the low low price of only 2500$ you can get a working copy of a German MG42, the M53 Belt-Fed Semi-Auto 8mm Rifle. Http://www.centerfiresystems.com/rifle-m53.aspx
Then there is the grand daddy of them all. The Big One. The mother of all weaponry. The machine gun that is over 75 years old, been in more wars than any gun on the planet, and is nicknamed “Ma Deuce.” The Browning M2 .50cal machine gun. This ground shaker has been in service since 1933. If you ever seen this thing fired ,live or on TV, you know that this thing can put down a world of hurt on a target. AND GUESS WHAT? Uncle Cletus can own it for only $32,000!!!!
http://www.impactguns.com/store/MGT-003794.html
I mean seriously people, and I'm talking to the gun people out there, can you honestly justify someone owning this gun? Someone like Ted Nugent can argue about private citizens owning weapons like that by saying:
“I don’t need a piece of paper or a court to tell me, a free citizen of a free country, that I can’t defend myself or my family while at the same time forcing me to pay for an armed security force to come along and clean up after something goes wrong. The most basic thing that makes me free and safe is my ability to protect myself from those who would try to take away my liberty or my life.”
As much as I like Ted Nugent, and I think he's awesome, I think he's drank too much moonshine on this one. I mean who does he expect to come after him to such a degree that he would need something like any of those guns or maybe a MP5 Sub Machine Gun with attached Silencer? The Russian Army? If that's the case then we better get our asses to the hills and call ourselves the Wolverines right quick.
And unless you are going up against one mean bear who happens to have superior agility to that of a leopard and is well versed in hand to hand combat, I doubt you need an AR15 semi automatic assault rifle. Does the bear know kung-fu?
But James, what about personal defense you ask? Again, as long as the person invading your house is not a highly trained assassin you need not to worry about anything meaner than a pistol or rifle.
As for the people who argue that the 2nd amendment gives them the rights to these weapons. I say to you this, yet another great quote from the West Wing:”TOBY- It says a well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of the free state...the government shall not infringe. The words regulated and militia are in the first sentence. I don't think the Framer's were thinking of three guys in a Dodge Durango.”
You have to keep in mind that this was written during a time when the colonists feared invasion from foreign powers like England. When it was necessary for ordinary individuals to take up arms in defense for the country. The Revolutionary War was pretty much fought by farmers and average men with minimal training. It was not the ideal of a standing formal army that we have today. So the 2nd amendment makes sense in this time.
Now not so much. I'm not saying strike down the 2nd amendment. I actually have no problems with guns. Just certain types of guns being in hands they don't belong in.
So as you read this sitting in your comfy chair, iced tea to your left, and your freshly cleaned over/under rifle by the bookshelf, ask yourself this: Am I doing the right thing? Am I practicing responsible gun ownership?
What we need to look at is the nature of the gun culture in America. We need to analyze what kind of message we send to people when we allow ourselves to own guns that most military units would love to have. If you are a hunter, sport shooter, or Olympic athlete and are doing the safe responsible thing, then more power to you. But if you are the guy who lives off a dirt road with a basement filled to the brim with enough firepower to arm a small country, then I have to wonder what your trigger is.
And that's tonight's talking points
