*cracks knuckles*
I grew up in the Deep South, way out in the freaking boonies (my graduating class was just 42 kids…and that was in the next county over) and we *always* had firearms in the house. They were absolutely necessary. Not only did we have to worry about snakes or rabid dogs, but the nearest police station was 30 minutes away. If there was a problem, we knew we’d probably have to fend for ourselves.
Okay? I understand the argument about self-defense. Like most of my fellow gun-control enthusiasts, I do NOT want to arbitrarily get rid of the Second Amendment.
But there IS such a thing as taking it too damned far. Look back again at my article where I mentioned a few of the places I’ve been around the world, where even in third-world slums it was safer for me to walk down the street than it is in any major city in America. It was literally safer for my sons to go to school in Manila than it was to send them to school here. One day my youngest son brought a penknife to school and showed it to his friends. All of a sudden he was surrounded by a dozen or more students, all of whom were royally pissed at him for bringing a weapon to school.
That was for a penknife. That probably sounds silly to you, but it spoke volumes to me.
I know, I know, you’re all about freedom. But when it’s literally safer for me to send my kids to school in a third-world megalopolis than it is to send them to an upscale suburban school here, one has to wonder about the definition of “freedom”.
Lastly, look up homicide rates of the different states…and of the different nations. When it comes to states, you’ll find that generally speaking, the more gun-friendly the state, the higher the overall homicide rate. For instance, New York City — you know, that metropolis with all the scary people walking around Times Square — has about *half* the overall homicide rate that the gun-friendly state of Louisiana does.
When it comes to nations, look at majority-Muslim third-world Indonesia. It has a lower homicide rate than even our safest state (New Hampshire). Why? Because firearms are doggone hard to get there. No, no, don’t give me the “Mexico” excuse that Mexico’s-outlawed-all-firearms-and-that’s-why-gun-control-doesn’t-work. That’s the WRONG example, because firearms are rather easy to get there — especially since we Americans smuggle about a quarter million firearms south of the border every single freaking year.
But in nations where firearms are very hard to physically get (regardless of laws), the homicide rates are significantly lower. That’s what the numbers show. Period.
No, I don’t want to get rid of the Second Amendment. But we do need to get back to national sanity…because it is freaking INSANE to make it easier to purchase a gun than it is to do damn near anything else.
