I haven't gotten over the shock of the recent SCOTUS decision vis a vis guns and the applause it's receiving on both sides of the ticket. I really wish that someone could help me better understand why guns are held so precious in our country and society. Please enlighten me.
I get the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms, but I wonder what our Founding Father's would have thought if they knew that centuries later, more than 10,000 Americans would be killed by guns a year. I wonder what they would think about the fact that a college kid would take assault weapons onto his campus and murder innocent American students. Whether for hunting or self defense, isn't the point of guns to kill?
This issue is one that ignites such passion amongst gun owners and I just want to understand why? They often site the right to form a well armed militia to rise up against the forces of tyranny.
Well shoot, since there seem to be an abundance of these tyrannical forces, I'm thinking of forming a well armed militia to rise up, anyone want to join me? We have to be careful in our planning though as our phones might be wiretapped.
I respect your questioning the issue a great deal.
I would like to take a little step back though and prompt you to ask a broader question. Why do we kill so many people?
what is it in our society that allows or prods for such a furious response to any situation?
In countries where gun bans are in place, homicide is not necessarily less of an issue, in Japan or Mexico knives are used, Africa has killed around 5 million people in past decade almost exclusively with the machete.
In Non-firearm homicide rates the US is the first western nation on the list, Americans kill seven times more people, per capita, than Canadians do.
All without using guns.
So if guns go, homicides won't follow. Prison murder rates show that weapon availability won't affect homicide rates in the long run.
It is the moral state that is the cause for the murder, and that should be the issue addressed first, wouldn't you say? Go to the roots...
In 2005 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 30,694 gun deaths in the U.S:
* 12,352 homicides (40% of all U.S gun deaths),
* 17,002 suicides (55% of all U.S gun deaths),
* 789 unintentional shootings, 330 from legal intervention and 221 from undetermined intent (5% of all U.S gun deaths combined).
-Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2008.
55% of gun deaths are suicides.
61% percent of Homicides were commited without the use of firearms.
I do truly believe that guns are not the issue, it is the state of the heart of people. Perhaps if all of the money spent on the 'anti-gun' anything went to helping inner-city youth and loving people nationwide, giving men a sense of purpose and people a sense of hope the issue altogether could go away. Not until a knife can be found, but until a father or mother stops loving and guiding their child.
Your thoughts are welcome, Kenneth