I can be silent no more. I am a gun owner, lover and defender.
It is NOT the gun's fault when children are accidentally killed by them any more than it's the lake's fault when the child who can't swim suddenly wants to play Aqua-Man; it's not the poison's fault when they ingest a handful of vitamins containing iron. It's not the car's fault when they go flying through the windshield; it's not the bicycle's fault when they ride in the street and get hit, and it's not the tree's fault when they climb too far, fall off, strike their head and die.
All of those things kill more children every year than firearms do and yet nobody's clamoring to take your vitamins. Ban the vitamins, I say!!
Accidents happen, and just like the people who think gun owners are idiots, gun owners think it's pretty idiotic to say, "Guns kill kids, therefore, guns should be banned."
The fact is, children die more often from many other kinds of accidents, and when children are killed by guns it's due to a lack of parental supervision and parental education.
Some of the very people who want nothing more than to see my guns taken away are the very loudest to accuse George Bush of violating civil liberties in his effort to protect our nation. What a bunch of hypocrits! Owning a gun is a civil liberty and I have every right to that kind of protection.
Do I think there needs to be strict control on who legally gets a gun in this country? Of course. But blaming guns for children's deaths and wanting to ban them because of it is a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that's far more complicated and not so easily solved. Stop blaming guns when it's violence in general you should be pointing the finger at. We are a violent society and getting rid of guns isn't going to change that. Ban the guns and you haven't stopped school killings, you've just forced the perpetrators to adopt even more lethal methods, such as bombs.
Gun control is a victory for criminals, making it even easier for them to prey on the innocent. Sure, the chances of me ever having to use my gun are slim, but I have to wonder how many innocent people could have been saved untimely deaths if they had legally and responsibly owned guns when their chance turned into certainty.
It's the stupidity we need to stop, it's the obsession with violence, it's education and it's the breakdown of the family we need to address. Children aren't as stupid as adults think they are, and a little education... yes, talking to your children, goes a long way in protecting them. You give television such credit for influencing them to pick up guns, and yet, I say television isn't one tenth as powerful a motivator for evil as talking to your children is for good.
Posted by Cranky at January 07, 2003 05:33 AMWell written piece....
:-)
well, at the risk of a venomous reply. first, i'm the owner of more than several guns. second-and here comes the risk-what king bush and his cabal has done to our freedoms is more than alarming. you can't have it both ways. if we are to defend freedoms elsewhere then we must retain them here.
cm