It's not just gun laws, but gun culture that needs to
change. We need to begin to look at guns and violence in general as a
lesser option in this country. Wars and violence in the world are not to
be celebrated. It is to be discouraged as a primary objective of
humanity.
The freedom that
we have right now to bear arms is a large one; it is the most dangerous
one. We regulate everything else, we regulate our medicine, we
regulate the drugs, we regulate cars , we regulate taxes and all sorts
of things. But the deadliest things? The things that can cause harm to
one another? The ease of procurement of lethal weaponry in the US is
second to none. Both legally and illegally.
Young
people and people that are emotionally or mentally disturbed OR MAY
BECOME emotionally or mentally disturbed have it very easy to obtain a
weapon in this country and that presents a problem in this day and age
when those weapons can decimate a large number of people in an extremely
short period of time.
I believe that people have a right to defend themselves with a personal defense weapon.
I believe that that weapon should be capable of completely incapacitating an aggressor.
I
believe in the right to hunt with certain restrictions. You can't
change the entire ecosystem by decimating a population of elephants, for
example.
I believe that skill shooting is a valid competition.
However
I believe that gun ownership is a huge responsibility and as such,
checks must be made to ensure the safety of others in this regulation.
Guns are weapons. Let's not pretend that their function isn't primarily
to shoot and destroy things.
I think that a yearly
check to ensure the person doesn't have any prior drug or alcohol
related offenses for the past year. That they don't have any violent
offenses. Not just to purchase a weapon, but to maintain ownership,
especially if when referring to military grade weaponry.
I
believe that people can act responsibly one day and irresponsibly the
next, so I don't think a one time purchase should lead to a lifetime of
ownership for assault rifles and semi automatic weaponry. It would be
great if mankind constantly acted rationally at all times, but we know
this is not the case.
I don't have
the right right now to medicate however I please. There are certain
drugs I can take and there's certain drugs that I cannot take. The
government attempts to regulate personal health with greater scrutiny
than it regulates potential death to its own citizenry via the hostile
actions of others.
In some things I agree, that
opioids in particular need to be an extremely scrutinized category drug
due it's nature of addiction as well as acute overdose dangers.
Marijuana on the other hand I find less destructive than alcohol, and shouldn't be regulated by the government.
I
think it is time to regulate with far greater scrutiny weapons with
large magazines and weapons that can discharge at a disproportionate
rate. We need to regulate them at least as well as we regulate cars, or
medicine.
But the gun laws are really only
part of the problem the real problem in the core of it starts with who
we are as like a people and how much do we love each other and try to
support one another versus how much are we looking out for ourselves and
our own selfish interest and greed.
I
believe that the school shootings in particular could be prevented by
additional help and funding in the classroom and in school and
escalating problems and how we interact with one another how we interact
and deal with bullying in our lives at an early age, talking to one
another and communicating to one another is one of the most important
things that you can learn. I think it helps prevent anger and hostility
towards one another when we treat each other in it. Don't bully tease
and put people in isolation that don't need to be there.
For
some people its hard or difficult to interact with the outside world
and they have fears or anxieties or their stress or any multitude of
things but it's important as a society to try to reach out and love
those that maybe other people have had difficulty reaching out to for
whatever reason.
I really believe
that America as I see it today is at a bit of a crossroads to who we
want to be. Do we want to be a country that is angry all the time that
embraces this winning or nothing mentality and will do anything to get
ahead? Or do we bond together and try to talk about things that affect
everybody even though you may not be able to see it or feel it at
times. To take action on helping other people with social programs that
uplift the country as a whole, rather than invest in a weapons and
military industry that in my view isn't built for the problems and
securities of today.
Gun activists
and proponents of guns and their freedom with them like to point out
that if the person was dedicated enough he could still get his hands on
multitudes of weapons or bombs or poison or what have you to have a
great effect on their target whatever their target is which is true.
However
we still don't see though any of those sorts of activities happening in
other countries. For example we don't see the disaffected youth of
France you know bombing their schools we don't see the disaffected youth
of Germany, Russia, Australia, Franz, the UK, Mexico, Canada, for
anywhere else in the world destroying their own.
I
am sure there have been isolated incidents all across the world, but
they are exceedingly rare in comparison to what is going on in the
United States right now.
So I think to
myself. What is the reason that are youth and our populace is so upset
and why are we so angry and why are we so scared?
One
of the things I think is a problem is that we are constantly pumped
fear by our politicians and news media about different things, namely
crime. We always have a fear of a burglar, a rapist, a murderer, a
terrorist or an off kilter nut-job.
The
second thing that I think is that our schools are woefully inadequate
and how they are performing and how they are funded, the kids aren't
getting nearly enough resources and things such as bullying and social
isolation need to be addressed.
If we
want better kids and we want better parents and we want everything to
be better, we need to begin to at the very start and investing in our
future we need to invest our collective ability to learn and adapt and
that comes primarily through education.
We
need to invest to get a people, opportunities and jobs. Technical and
trade schools. Community Colleges. Anything really to kind of help get
people working and being productive would be great.
In
the end, while restricting access to military grade weaponry will help,
it will by embracing a culture that loves one another rather than
fears and hates one another. Build through education and social
programs that uplift. Care for one another rather than only looking to
help ones self.
