Originally Posted By: pyscodogEvery morning I get up, get my coffee, turn on the news and another shooting in Tulsa or somewhere in the US. Its hard to say that something is not wrong and needs fixed. Is it a political problem, a mental problem,a racist problem, or just bad people taking it out on innocent people? I don't know what the answer is to end the mass shootings. Since the beginning of man, we have found ways to kill each other. Anything from a rock or stick to an atom bomb, even an automobile, today is just happens to be the AR 15. Do we start banning everything that has the possibility to cause deadly harm? We all...or most of us know more gun control laws don't work. We have pretty strict laws now and the bad guy still finds a way to get guns, They always have, they always will. Only the good guy suffers from more rules so whats the answer? I don't have one. All I know is taking my guns away just turns me into a possible victim.
These are some very good points. One thing all these individuals have in common is mental illness. They don't all use guns. How about the worst school massacre in the U.S? What caliber did the killer use? It was the Bath school massacre of 1927. What caliber? It was DYNAMITE. How about the guys driving into crowds? What caliber are those cars and trucks? How about the knife attacks in China?
It is 100% TRUE that people will always find ways to kill each other. The real threat, is PEOPLE. So when you think about psycho's walking among us, and remember the police are only minutes away, then you can understand why those of us feel the need and desire to protect ourselves with guns. Do I "need" certain guns? That is a debatable point. Just like do we need cars that can go 200 mph, or food that has 5,000 calories in it? Do we need cigarettes? Booze? There are plenty of things that some would argue that we don't need.
But it comes down to personal responsibility, nothing more. We don't see Budweiser getting sued because someone drank and drove. We don't see Mars getting sued because people get fat and get diabetes. I don't agree with people getting money from the tobacco industry, they CHOSE to smoke. But the courts made their decisions.
We, LEGAL and law ABIDING citizens should NOT suffer for a crime that we did NOT commit. My guns have killed less people than Teddy Kennedy's car. I have a Constitutional right to innocence until PROVEN guilty. Yet we are punished simply for exercising our Constitutional right.
A gun is an inanimate object, a tool. Nothing more. The anti gunners politicize tragedy by gifting human traits to an inanimate object.
I surrender my soap box.