Saturday, December 15, 2012

Guns and butter minus the butter


Economic theory aside the initial intention of the second amendment was to permit common folk to be able to hunt for food, protect themselves from wild animals and provide for an armed force when necessary. Deer hunters are few and far between these days. It's rare to see a wild animal in most cities or towns and our military has progressed way beyond muzzle loaders and will be more than willing to provide you with the latest hardware should you choose to join.  I'm sure our founding fathers could never have guessed the sheer increase of our population or how far we've come in our killing capabilities. Back then it took several minutes to properly load a weapon, enough time to consider the consequences maybe?

But guns really aren't the problem. It's the fact that no one will own up to the fact that some people shouldn't own a gun. We would never think of giving a toddler a gun yet even people with mental issues have that right. And arming everybody will not solve the problem. How do you know if the guy in the coffee shop with a 45 strapped to his belt really knows how to shoot it? And who'd want to attend a movie knowing that even half the audience was packing? So training is the first issue. There are no training requirements which is silly for something that can kill. We have stiffer requirements for some power actuated tools than for guns. It makes no sense.

With our population density I see no need what so ever to own an assault rifle. They may be fun play toys for the gun crowd but they'd be better off limited to some type of amusement park set up for that activity. No sport in taking down a deer with an AK-47 either.

And now for the bad news. With budget cuts the types of people committing these crimes are about to flood our streets. Mental hospitals are about to unleash a bunch of people along with those who were in drug treatment programs. I seriously doubt our emergency rooms will be able to handle the increase in both mental cases and the victims of their actions. A movie theater a mall and a school are just the beginnings. This will get worse. Responsibility, training, a good gun cabinet and some tightening of the laws might go a long way to preventing at least a few future tragedies.     

7 comments:

Randal Graves said...

It really is less of a gun-control issue than everything else you pointed out. Even the most zealot gun enthusiast with a vast array of semi- and automatic weapons at his disposal isn't going to shoot up the mall, the school, or church.

Mental health really is the final frontier. Even though there's less of a stigma with it than there used to be, we still don't deal with it. Thus, shit like this is gonna happen, draconian laws on the books or not.

harry said...

Comming to a town near you.

The Blog Fodder said...

AlterNet had this article today:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/wake-another-mass-shooting-lets-talk-about-americas-dangerously-gutted-mental

Demeur said...

Maybe so until that zealot has a breakdown for whatever reason. We've seen that before with police dead in Pittsburgh.

And it isn't Santa Clause either Harry.

Our breakdown in mental health has been going on for some time here Fodder. It's been death by a thousand cuts.

BBC said...

I don't have a good solution but I admire the problem. I don't have an assault rifle and don't intend on getting one.

Greater gun control is knowing how to take out a crackpot with your pistol when that crackpot is using an assault rifle.

Be careful out there.

BBC said...

Oh, going to a black powder shooting match tomorrow, it's a great sport but I sure wouldn't want to fight with those guns.

BBC said...

If five kids in our classroom got shot we just went right on with our math lessons. Let's see, thirty five kids in class minus five is.....

George Carlin....