The Way I See It

I don’t really like guns personally. They represent violence and egoism to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t think that guns might be necessary in the world we live in today. I had never realized exactly what the second amendment said until very recently. Honestly I was quite surprised at the actual wording of this amendment. Everyone seems to be using it as a basis to argue for or against gun control, when logically, I don’t read those words as an argument for either case. Guns, sadly, cannot be controlled in this society. It is impossible to do as long as there is a black market for guns. Should gun control be enforced? Absolutely, because a citizen defending their home with a weapon doesn’t need an assault weapon to do so. A simple gun would provide a form of protection that that particular person is in need of and doing that would not infringe upon the interpretation that the person actually reads in the second amendment. Would I do it? No. I don’t want any guns in my home nor would I choose to collect them, use them, or have anything to do with them, but that is my right as well as the right of my fellow citizens to have one. Do I believe that a person who buys a gun legally needs to be screened for mental illness? Absolutely. Do I believe that it is possible to screen everyone who gets or buys a weapon? Absolutely, not! So as an average American I don’t think there is a better solution than the following when it falls under the category of assault weapons: manufacture those weapons for the military and police forces and no one else. Legally, it would be the only option that makes any sense to me. The gun manufacturers could contract with the military and the police forces to make those weapons for their use only, the other guns would still be manufactured for self-defense of the individuals who feel they need them, or hunting rifles for those who hunt to keep the balance in nature. The gun manufacturers should be able to make a decent profit doing that and therefore, the question of turning a profit is answered. The military and the police forces would then be liable and accountable should these assault weapons fall into the hands of the unsavory. It would be both a local and federal government responsibility to keep track of all assault weapons assigned through a consistent inventory database showing who was assigned which weapon and when you left the military or the police force, your weapon would be returned or that individual would be held accountable both monetarily as well as criminally. How else, I ask myself do these weapons get into the hands of criminals and mentally challenged people? Only through a criminal act would be my answer. The black-market! How does a society stop a black-market? I don’t think it is humanely possible to do that. I cannot see how that could be accomplished unless we were forced to become a military state throughout the entire country. I certainly wouldn’t want that, would you? I happen to like the privileges of freedom I experience in the United States of America. I, for one, don’t want to upset that balance at all.

The second amendment was written quite a long time ago. It’s idea I believe was enacted when Americans believed they could be attacked by an enemy while they were in their homes. It seems to me that the only way that happens nowadays is if a criminal broke into a home to do harm. So I can understand the theory in those cases, “of a right to bear arms”. I just don’t see the need for an assault weapon or any other weapon that needs more than six bullets in order to defend your home, from animals or humans. I, personally don’t see the need for any guns in my home at all. But that is just me. Just as I defend my right to say these things publicly, I would defend the people who believe they have the right to have a gun. I will continue to disagree with their belief that it is necessary to have one and at the same time believe it is not my place to force my beliefs on anyone else.

So in my most humblest opinion there is no simple answer to what people refer to as gun control. There is no simple answer to violence whether it be with a gun or some other type of weapon, violence is violence, and evil is evil. Hearing different opinions on television and on social networking can’t hurt because those of us who are not exactly up-to-date can at least be informed of what is being said and done.

I do however wish that people would just remember that we are all human beings and that respect for others opinions or believes goes a long way. Change obviously needs to be made when it comes to the subject of guns and if the NRA and other advocates with similar beliefs don’t see that then they are fooling only themselves. I respect their right to bear arms against their enemy, I just don’t respect their push to do this not because of their conviction, but because it makes them money. I, for one, will never believe that the NRA is in this for the sake of an amendment. It is for the money and power that comes along with this particular political stance. So why not have the best of both worlds by bringing compromise and compassion into the privilege of bearing arms? Extremists in all areas of life are the problem. They cause the problems, they create the problems, they are the problems! It isn’t guns, it isn’t people with guns. Not having guns will not solve all the problems and bring peace to the world. If extremists can’t get guns they will get clubs, rocks, knives, whatever it will take to harm others. People who claim to want peace and do away with guns and all forms of violence are idealists. In human nature there will always be peaceful intentions and violent intentions. It is, unfortunately, the way the world turns. I am so tired of hearing all the rhetoric about gun control. I am so tired of the legislature fighting over this when there are so many other things that the country should be concentrated on at the moment. That boy who killed those children, teachers and mother and then himself, was a very disturbed individual who needed help that he obviously didn’t get. The access to those guns he had came from his very own mother, who IN MY OPINION, had to be disturbed herself to think that she needed to have those weapons because it was her right to have them. She twisted the meaning of the second amendment to fit her own wants. That is exactly what the NRA is doing today and the legislature is doing. Keep the second amendment in perspective, but understand that its meaning is to protect the American individual in their own home and does not mean to accumulate or collect guns that have no place in everyday society. If I could talk directly to Congress and the Senate those are the things I would tell them and I would add: “Please stop arguing and fighting over this! Please just set the record straight once and for all about the privileges we have been given in the Constitution and stop your greed from Lobbyists!” “We, the American people, need our representatives to be the leaders we elected, we need your common sense, your judgement and decisions, your leadership.”

Let’s just get on with our American lives and that is the Way I See It here in Brooklyn.

K