Fine. That is completely fine - maintaining our safety as a nation is one of the corner stones on which we were built.
But this is not an epidemic. This is not a matter of gun control laws. This is a matter of social paradigm in which we have created villains out of citizens, and we have polarized gun owners and non-gun owners so far as to alienate them. This is completely a matter of social standpoint and it all stems from the Judicial System and our law enforcement policies and practices.
conservativedailynews.com updated 2012. Sure, this is from a biased website. Because you would NEVER find anything that showed this real information on a liberally-biased website. So by default, this is from CDN.com.
But that doesn't matter. Just check it out. Both types of gun violence clock in at the very bottom of the chart. Epidemic? I think not.
That being said, I am not denying that it IS an issue. It's a very personal issue for me and many others. I want to stop the crazies from getting their hands on weapons. At the end of the day, shouldn't that be everybody's intention? To keep weapons away from dangerous people. Not to keep dangerous things away from responsible, law abiding people? Consider this...
Flashback to the Aurora movie theater shooting crisis that took place this past summer. A man, now supposed to be "mentally ill" walks into a movie theater and shoots up a room full of innocent movie go-ers. This was tragic and unnecessary. The immediate reaction from many Americans was "WHY IS ANYONE ALLOWED TO HAVE A GUN EVER UNLESS THEY ARE IN THE MILITARY?!?"
They were missing this vital piece of information.
That movie theater was a gun-free zone. Therefore showing that:
- This asshat was just crazy. He obviously did not care whether he was allowed to have a gun or not.
- Since it was a gun-free zone, nobody - not even a licensed gun carrier - had any means of protecting themselves.
Did we ever consider that if guns were allowed, and responsible Americans with a license to carry could have been armed on the scene of the crime, somebody could have prevented this from happening? Or at least diminished the damage that this crazy mental criminal created?
When someone is licensed to carry, it is for their own personal protection. If a man walks into a movie theater and tries to shoot at you, and you are a licensed carrier, you are COMPLETELY within your rights to shoot back. In fact, it's kind of a responsibility since you have the ability to protect those around you from an impending danger.
But sadly, there was no possibility for protection. Responsible gun owners could have have their guns, numerous helpless people were injured and killed, and all chaos was due to one man who wouldn't give a shit about any gun law.
The bottom line is - guns are for protection or hunting. They aren't for crazies and they aren't for killers. By restricting automatic weapons and limiting magazines to a round of 10 at a time, the only thing that is being stopped is the American Way. The only ends that this achieves is limiting the rights of the American people that are CLEARLY outlined in the Bill of Rights.
I'm sorry, I thought the Constitution was supposed to be the law of the land? Or was that cancelled....
The way to suppress this so-called outbreak of gun violence is not to take away the Constitutional right to bear arms by undermining Congress with the Presidential Power of Persuasion. It is to take both the more logical and Constitutional route by STOPPING THE PERPETRATORS AT THE SOURCE.
I do agree with Obama that tightening up background checks is a great way to help ensure the legitimacy of gun ownership. If a person is rightfully licensed and has no reason to not be able to get a gun, then they will not mind a thorough background check. Nothing to hide, no shame, in the clear. Right?
But we can't just stop there. We must, as per usual, be wicked extreme and put a ban on assault rifles, and then limit the number of bullets that can be in a magazine. This is useless. USELESS I SAY.
Someone who is going to commit a lethal crime using a gun will not give two hoots about whether it is legal or not to:
A. own the gun
B. touch the gun
C. have a certain number of bullets in the magazine
D. obtain an assault rifle
E. steal the gun
F. kill someone to then steal their gun
G. kill more people
H. any other number of possibilities
To put this in context, trying to stop a killer from killing by banning guns is like trying to stop a crackhead from doing crack by making it illegal. Which is already is. And millions of people still do it.
So look how that worked out?
Anyone who is going to willingly find a weapon and then commit a crime with it will not abide by laws. This is a fact. This is just THE PLAIN DAMN TRUTH.
So why can we Americans not get this through our thick skulls? It's human. There's good guys and bad guys. When we get a trace on bad guys who have previously committed crimes, we are fully within our rights to stop them before they have the chance to strike again. Actually, we would be putting our fellow citizens in danger if we did NOT stop them.
And here en-lies the problem. We have to stop playing the mental illness card as an excuse to let people out of jail. As a nation, we consistently let people out of jail who have committed serious crimes and we KNOW they are dangerous!
But due to things like bribery, laziness on behalf of the lawyers, and certain states eliminating the death penalty, more loose-cannon killers are walking free than I bet you would care to know.
How about this? 90% of all state prisoners are repeat offenders. 70% of the crime in America is committed by 6% of our criminals.
WHAT?
That makes you feel reassured, doesn't it? So, my friends. I've said this a thousand times and now a thousand-and-one - It's not a matter of stopping the availability of guns. It is a matter of stopping dangerous people who are already on the radar. As of 2006, over there are over 1 million inmates in America who are mentally ill. Pleading insanity should no longer be an option in court case. If somebody is insane, that makes them a danger to society. The main job of our government is to ensure our safety, which we as a country so often forget. Therefor, they should lock these insane people away. There should be no second chance.
In modern times where lethal incidents can happen instantaneously, there is no room left for benefit of the doubt, especially when dealing with people who are diagnosed as mentally ill or unstable. The majority, if not all, of these terrifying murder incidents that took place over the past year were perpetrated by a mentally ill person. And so, the trend is not due to lackadaisical gun laws. It is due to a lackadaisical law enforcement system and a society that is too softy-touchy-feely and so full of pansies so that NOBODY seems to have the gall to say
"Hey, this person is unstable and therefore a threat to society. Lock him away" or
"They committed murder, sentence them to death" or
"You're offering 1 billion dollars to not go to jail after raping and killing someone? Whatever, I don't want the money. You're going to jail."
Jeez. I feel like we will never learn. We're sliding backwards and REPEATEDLY shooting ourselves in the foot, quite literally. It's all due to three things.
1. Fear
2. Political Correctness
3. Irresponsibility
We have gone to far to the left on the gun control issue that some hole-in-the-wall newspaper actually put hundreds of families in danger with this one, dumbass article. Honestly! This shit blows my mind. This newspaper, The Journal News out of New York, created an interactive database map of the names and addresses of all licensed gun carriers and gun owners in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. This means that the names and addresses of 16,000 people who are rightfully allowed to carry concealed weapons are now floating around for everyone to see. This totally goes against American Constitutional Law, not to mention endangers everyone.
The gun-fearing liberals just fucked themselves because now they have reveals which houses ARE NOT protected by guns. Congrats, you just invited a criminal to your house for a break-in. Kudos.
Additionally, the gun-owners are now alienated and viewed as one giant stereotypical heap of killers when really, they are completely legal and harmless.
The reason people get licenses to carry concealed weapons is so that they can carry a concealed weapon. CONCEALED. NOT SLUNG ACROSS THEIR BACKS. THEY ARE CONCEALED FOR A REASON. TO PROTECT AGAINST PEOPLE WHO TRY TO ASSAULT THEM. God, why can't anyone understand that?!?
Bottom line. LET THE CARRIERS CARRY. CONVICT THE GUILTY. AND LEAVE EVERYONE BE TO THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
Rant = over. Except it will never really be over.
