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Dec. 30th, 2012 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDoes anyone out there know how to get rid of things you made the mistake of "liking" on Facebook? My Facebook page has been taken over by MSNBC and "I love it when I wake up in the morning and Barack Obama is President". (Not that I don't still like the latter, but I'm tired of political posts particularly on gun regulation and gun control....it's well exhausting, even if I agree with all of them. LOL!) Speaking of? Every paper I've picked up has an article on gun control and regulation.
And... I'm beginning to wonder about the sanity and over-all intelligence of the gun rights activists/proponents. [This is mainly a reaction to the stuff I've been inundated with.]
As an aside, I've always known that radical/extreme libertarians seem to be lacking in the common sense department. Went to law school with a very bright guy. Libertarian to the core. One little problem - he did not believe in left-turn signals. He hailed from Western Kansas where admittedly there was no traffic - so the rule that you must signal when you make a left hand turn or have a signal light telling you when you could was completely lost on him. It was a violation of his personal rights. The government just should not regulate left turn signals, darn-it. (I'm not exaggerating here, he actually said this and meant it. Arguing with him was pointless. Although I was tempted to dare him to drive in Kansas City without signaling or following the left-turn signal rules and see what happens.)
Now, beginning to wonder the same thing about a lot of other people.
Or their increasingly bewildering arguments:
1) Banning alcohol didn't work, why would banning guns?
Well, because banning guns has actually worked in other countries, and in the US - or did you somehow skip that little teensy weeny bit of historical data regarding the battle over the old west? I know, I know history is boring, but it can be informative at times. Back in the olden days, Wyatt Earp and Dale Earp made everyone check their guns before entering Dodge. Cut down on the gun-fights considerably.
Also, alcohol and guns aren't the same thing. One is a weapon. One is beverage. Apparently this distinction is lost on a lot of people? Banning a beverage which is quite easy to make in your own home and you can drink in privacy without anyone knowing or really caring - because 90% of the time it doesn't affect anyone else, and banning a gun, which is harder to make on your own, you can't really use without hurting, maiming or killing someone else and/or damaging property (because you know that is the purpose of a gun - it's why people create guns)...is not quite the same thing. You'd think this distinction would be obvious to people? But it's not.
2) More deaths are caused by alcohol, tobacco, and motor vehicles, we should ban those over guns!
Seriously?
Guns are a weapon - that is their sole purpose - to kill, maim, injure living things. Motor vehicles sole purpose is to transport you from one place to another - if someone dies as a result this is often accidental and rarely if ever intentional. In short they abused or misused the device. With a gun - if you aren't killing, maiming, injuring or hurting something or someone with it - if death is not the result - you are doing something wrong - that's what it was made for. Or did you actually think the gun could transport you to another place?
And it's not the number of deaths that is at issue here, folks, it is how they happen. More people die from cancer and heart disease too.
When you drink and drive - you are NOT intending to kill anyone. It's an accident. When you drink - you don't intend to die, and most people don't.
When you buy a gun, you are intending to kill someone (even if it is just yourself) or injure them whether it is in defense of your own life or just for kicks.
When you buy an alcoholic beverage you are intending to enjoy the taste, maybe lose a little tension, and you most likely will only drink one. Most people don't drink to get drunk, they don't like getting sick - it's icky.
Smoking tobacco does and can hurt non-smokers (second-hand smoke and allergies) - which is why it has been effectively banned in public parks, restaurants, train platforms, bars and public buildings in NYC and other locals. And to make it even more difficult to smoke - taxes have been raised on it. It has weirdly enough worked, much to the considerable annoyance of smokers everywhere. But unlike Guns, smokers do not intend to hurt anyone but themselves. And tend to avoid doing so, often smoking somewhere non-smokers don't hang out.
They just want the nicotine blast.
But guns? What do you think you buy guns for??
3) Guns don't kill people, people kill people!
Yes, but guns are created by people to kill people. It's sort of like saying that nuclear weapons don't kill people. That bombs don't kill people. That land-mines don't kill people.
That biological weapons and man-made viruses don't kill people.
Guns are created to kill people and other living, breathing, things. What do you think they are created for? To shield people from bullets? Good luck with that. To garden? I suppose you could find a way to plant something in the barrel...but seems a tad small. Water pistols might work as a way of watering plants.
4) Gun's protect you!
How exactly? Oh right, by killing the other dude or maiming them.
Hmmm. Except there's one little problem - in order to protect yourself, you have to injure, maim, or kill the other person first. If you wait for them to shoot first, you are likely to get hit and killed. Why do you think that neighborhood watch guy killed poor teenage Treyvon Martin in the winter of 2012? He was "protecting" himself from a kid that he believed had a weapon. Treyvon didn't have a weapon and was just a kid walking home from the grocery store. Or how about those three cops who got killed in NJ, who were carrying firearms to "protect" themselves, until the guy they apprehended grabbed one of their guns and killed them. And they are professionals. Or how about the number of cops each year who accidentally shoot and kill kids or others, thinking they are reaching for a gun or a weapon, when they are unarmed? Or how about the mother of the shooter in Newton, CT, who owned lots and lots of guns for protection?
I interned for public defender and Defender Project, guns don't protect anyone. If you shoot someone? You get arrested and go to trial. And have to prove it was in self-defense. And it is likely that someone else will shoot you first. One of the first trials I sat in on was a manslaughter case - the property owner claimed he shot and killed a trespasser in self-defense. This was his second trial. First one, jury had to be thrown out. Second, had a hung jury.
Protection - is a security/alarm system, a kevlar vest, banning semi-automatic weapons and handguns. That's protection. Guns are created to kill not created to protect. When buying things, it helps to figure out what their purpose is. Saves you a lot of time, money and bother.
I just don't understand gun rights activists. Do they like to kill things? Or does the fact that they can kill their attacker...make them sleep better at night? Real life is not the movies, although even in the movies and books people are killed horribly by guns.
5) It's my god-given right under the Constitution!
Ugh. History really needs to be taught better in school. Stop hiring PE teachers to do it.
The continuous misreading of the Constitutional Amendment granting the right to raise a militia and bear arms ....which was written in 1770s and as a result of a Revolutionary War.
It was intended back then to fight against a tyrannical government. Also defend people against cougars, mountain lions, bears, and native americans - along with those pesky European governments that kept trying to take over.
Also back then, guns were basically muskets. Not semi-automatic rifles. There is a difference.
6) What about hunter's rights???
What about them? We are talking about banning hand-guns and semi-automatics. Not hunting rifles or bows and arrows.
Folks, you do not need a handgun or a semi-automatic rifle to hunt deer, racoons, or foxes. That will sort of destroy the deer. Counter-productive if you ask me. Actually all you really need for racoons is a bee-bee gun or a musket. Bow and arrow also works. UK allows hunting rifles but bans handguns. See? This is possible!
It's frustrating - because I can't do anything about this. And you can't argue with gun rights activists - as one guy stated at work - there's two sorts of people you can't argue with: stupid and crazy, and that sums up gun rights activists in a nutshell. We've been relegated to negotiating with them. Enough to make one want to go to Canada or the UK, isn't it?
Americans can be frustratingly wacky.
And... I'm beginning to wonder about the sanity and over-all intelligence of the gun rights activists/proponents. [This is mainly a reaction to the stuff I've been inundated with.]
As an aside, I've always known that radical/extreme libertarians seem to be lacking in the common sense department. Went to law school with a very bright guy. Libertarian to the core. One little problem - he did not believe in left-turn signals. He hailed from Western Kansas where admittedly there was no traffic - so the rule that you must signal when you make a left hand turn or have a signal light telling you when you could was completely lost on him. It was a violation of his personal rights. The government just should not regulate left turn signals, darn-it. (I'm not exaggerating here, he actually said this and meant it. Arguing with him was pointless. Although I was tempted to dare him to drive in Kansas City without signaling or following the left-turn signal rules and see what happens.)
Now, beginning to wonder the same thing about a lot of other people.
Or their increasingly bewildering arguments:
1) Banning alcohol didn't work, why would banning guns?
Well, because banning guns has actually worked in other countries, and in the US - or did you somehow skip that little teensy weeny bit of historical data regarding the battle over the old west? I know, I know history is boring, but it can be informative at times. Back in the olden days, Wyatt Earp and Dale Earp made everyone check their guns before entering Dodge. Cut down on the gun-fights considerably.
Also, alcohol and guns aren't the same thing. One is a weapon. One is beverage. Apparently this distinction is lost on a lot of people? Banning a beverage which is quite easy to make in your own home and you can drink in privacy without anyone knowing or really caring - because 90% of the time it doesn't affect anyone else, and banning a gun, which is harder to make on your own, you can't really use without hurting, maiming or killing someone else and/or damaging property (because you know that is the purpose of a gun - it's why people create guns)...is not quite the same thing. You'd think this distinction would be obvious to people? But it's not.
2) More deaths are caused by alcohol, tobacco, and motor vehicles, we should ban those over guns!
Seriously?
Guns are a weapon - that is their sole purpose - to kill, maim, injure living things. Motor vehicles sole purpose is to transport you from one place to another - if someone dies as a result this is often accidental and rarely if ever intentional. In short they abused or misused the device. With a gun - if you aren't killing, maiming, injuring or hurting something or someone with it - if death is not the result - you are doing something wrong - that's what it was made for. Or did you actually think the gun could transport you to another place?
And it's not the number of deaths that is at issue here, folks, it is how they happen. More people die from cancer and heart disease too.
When you drink and drive - you are NOT intending to kill anyone. It's an accident. When you drink - you don't intend to die, and most people don't.
When you buy a gun, you are intending to kill someone (even if it is just yourself) or injure them whether it is in defense of your own life or just for kicks.
When you buy an alcoholic beverage you are intending to enjoy the taste, maybe lose a little tension, and you most likely will only drink one. Most people don't drink to get drunk, they don't like getting sick - it's icky.
Smoking tobacco does and can hurt non-smokers (second-hand smoke and allergies) - which is why it has been effectively banned in public parks, restaurants, train platforms, bars and public buildings in NYC and other locals. And to make it even more difficult to smoke - taxes have been raised on it. It has weirdly enough worked, much to the considerable annoyance of smokers everywhere. But unlike Guns, smokers do not intend to hurt anyone but themselves. And tend to avoid doing so, often smoking somewhere non-smokers don't hang out.
They just want the nicotine blast.
But guns? What do you think you buy guns for??
3) Guns don't kill people, people kill people!
Yes, but guns are created by people to kill people. It's sort of like saying that nuclear weapons don't kill people. That bombs don't kill people. That land-mines don't kill people.
That biological weapons and man-made viruses don't kill people.
Guns are created to kill people and other living, breathing, things. What do you think they are created for? To shield people from bullets? Good luck with that. To garden? I suppose you could find a way to plant something in the barrel...but seems a tad small. Water pistols might work as a way of watering plants.
4) Gun's protect you!
How exactly? Oh right, by killing the other dude or maiming them.
Hmmm. Except there's one little problem - in order to protect yourself, you have to injure, maim, or kill the other person first. If you wait for them to shoot first, you are likely to get hit and killed. Why do you think that neighborhood watch guy killed poor teenage Treyvon Martin in the winter of 2012? He was "protecting" himself from a kid that he believed had a weapon. Treyvon didn't have a weapon and was just a kid walking home from the grocery store. Or how about those three cops who got killed in NJ, who were carrying firearms to "protect" themselves, until the guy they apprehended grabbed one of their guns and killed them. And they are professionals. Or how about the number of cops each year who accidentally shoot and kill kids or others, thinking they are reaching for a gun or a weapon, when they are unarmed? Or how about the mother of the shooter in Newton, CT, who owned lots and lots of guns for protection?
I interned for public defender and Defender Project, guns don't protect anyone. If you shoot someone? You get arrested and go to trial. And have to prove it was in self-defense. And it is likely that someone else will shoot you first. One of the first trials I sat in on was a manslaughter case - the property owner claimed he shot and killed a trespasser in self-defense. This was his second trial. First one, jury had to be thrown out. Second, had a hung jury.
Protection - is a security/alarm system, a kevlar vest, banning semi-automatic weapons and handguns. That's protection. Guns are created to kill not created to protect. When buying things, it helps to figure out what their purpose is. Saves you a lot of time, money and bother.
I just don't understand gun rights activists. Do they like to kill things? Or does the fact that they can kill their attacker...make them sleep better at night? Real life is not the movies, although even in the movies and books people are killed horribly by guns.
5) It's my god-given right under the Constitution!
Ugh. History really needs to be taught better in school. Stop hiring PE teachers to do it.
The continuous misreading of the Constitutional Amendment granting the right to raise a militia and bear arms ....which was written in 1770s and as a result of a Revolutionary War.
It was intended back then to fight against a tyrannical government. Also defend people against cougars, mountain lions, bears, and native americans - along with those pesky European governments that kept trying to take over.
Also back then, guns were basically muskets. Not semi-automatic rifles. There is a difference.
6) What about hunter's rights???
What about them? We are talking about banning hand-guns and semi-automatics. Not hunting rifles or bows and arrows.
Folks, you do not need a handgun or a semi-automatic rifle to hunt deer, racoons, or foxes. That will sort of destroy the deer. Counter-productive if you ask me. Actually all you really need for racoons is a bee-bee gun or a musket. Bow and arrow also works. UK allows hunting rifles but bans handguns. See? This is possible!
It's frustrating - because I can't do anything about this. And you can't argue with gun rights activists - as one guy stated at work - there's two sorts of people you can't argue with: stupid and crazy, and that sums up gun rights activists in a nutshell. We've been relegated to negotiating with them. Enough to make one want to go to Canada or the UK, isn't it?
Americans can be frustratingly wacky.
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Date: 2012-12-30 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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