Save your reasons. Don’t feed me your excuses. There is a simple and easy way to affect a dramatic decline in deaths in this country, and that is by banning all gun ownership for private citizens.
The tragedy at Virginia Tech has re-ignited the sadly dormant discussion about Gun Control in this country. Taking sides are the usual suspects, those who support the right to bear arms and those who favor gun control, with a growing number of people stuck right in the middle. However, there is an easy way to end this debate, a simple solution that makes the most sense to curbing violence and gun-related deaths in the United States.
GET RID OF ALL THE GUNS!
Now bring on the counter-arguments-
The 2nd Ammendment grants the right to bear arms.
I don’t care. It made sense at the time, when the threat of British troops storming through your front door was a very real possibility and that in order to provide food for your family it was necessary for people to physically go out and kill an animal. But that was in the 1780’s.. the year is now 2007. Things change. You don’t need to hunt for food. You can go to a store and buy it. That is the beauty of modern society.
And as to protecting your home, there are alarm systems now, and private security forces, and of course, the Police. Not to mention baseball bats, knives, golf clubs, or any other large blunt object that can be used to whack someone in the head and incapacitate them. Will those things work 100% of the time? Of course, but either do guns, and last I checked, no one ever robbed a store or held people hostage with a table lamp or a nine iron.
Quick Retort to any Constitutional Wonks Out There, if just hearing a hint of someone suggesting changing something in the constitution leads you to make the argument that doing it so freely could open the doors to other changes, I wake up!
Free speech isn’t going anywhere, the right to vote isn’t going anywhere (although it still hasn’t gotten to some people in the first place). And furthermore, if it was determined that somehow someway that curtailing a personal freedom would directly and irrefutably result in a massive decline in death and suffering, whose to say it shouldn’t be considered. What good is the protection of liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you aren’t alive to enjoy it?
I am a responsible hunter who shouldn’t be punished.
I don’t care. Hunt with a bow and arrow, it evens out the playing field. Or if that doesn’t work, then get another freaking hobby. I don’t care if it is something you and your family have done forever. Do something different. Fish, read, watch sports, recite really bad poetry, just do something else. From a personal standpoint, I love to play golf, that’s what I do, that is my one big hobby. But you know what, if people were abusing golf in someway that resulted in death and destruction and utter tragedy for millions of people, I’d be willing to give it up and find something else to do. I’m humble like that, what can I say?
I am a responsible gun collector.
I don’t care. Last I checked, stamps don’t kill people. Guns do. Just like getting another hobby, you can always collect something that isn’t used to kill people. Try Pokeman, baseball cards, old license plates, just something else! It’s called making a sacrifice for the good of the group. We learn it in grade school, don’t be such a baby!
I’ve been properly trained and I obey all the gun laws.
I don’t care. To quote Chris Rock, "What, you want a cookie?" I’m glad you follow the rules and act responsibly. Unfortunately, there are others out there who don’t and therefore the whole group is going to have to be punished. Is that fair? Probably not, but once again I DON’T CARE. People are dying senselessly every single day, so if banning all guns is going to piss off some people but save many, many, many more, than I think we should be okay with having a some people be pissed off.
If not guns, they can use something else
I don’t care. I’m taking this directly from another diary posted here that makes the point that someone with the desire to harm others will do so with whatever means they can. Sorry, not good enough. Certainly someone can cause damage with a variety of weapons, like they could build a bomb, fly a small plane into a building, drop arsenic in a water supply, but the big difference is that none of those things are available in stores across America. The way gun laws work in several states it’s a simple as having ID and cash, and within minutes you have a weapon of death in your hand. We need to take away that option from people.
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Those are just the first three arguments I could think of when people speak out against gun control, I’m sure there are plenty of others. And I don’t mean to belittle those people who truly feel passionate about their guns, as insane to me as that sounds. I guess my point in this whole rant is this when it comes to this crazy world we live in, isn’t it more important to ensure the overall safety of many versus protecting the pleasure of the few?
And I do mean the few, cause looking at the big picture and without any readily available statistics in front of me, but I’d venture a guess that the number of people who don’t own a gun is a hell of a lot bigger than those who do own them.
Now I don’t want to paint a picture that I am the most altruistic person on the planet, far from it, but in a situation like this, when there is such an obvious problem, guns, and such an obvious to me solution, get rid of them, it just infuriates me to no end that people can put two and two together.
GET RID OF THE GUNS!