What?! You mean Charlie didn’t part the Red Sea with a rifle? Okay, I admit - when it comes to graphic art, I’d best keep my day job. Give me a little credit though … at least I got the fingers to look like they were in front of the gun! ;-)
During a December 2005 discussion between Dr. Crippen from NHS Blog Doctor, Dr. Rangel from Rangel MD and myself, Dr. Crippen made the following statement:
At the risk of throwing a real hot potato in, the gun crimes and killing sprees in the USA are due to your gun laws; no more, no less. All that nonsense the gun lobby puts out about the Second Amendment giving them the right to keep assault weapons in the glove compartment is because most of them are too illiterate to read the first half of the sentence. This is not about respect for life, or euthanasia, or Roe & Wade, it is about the stupidity of allowing anyone who pleases free access to guns.
My own reply was as follows:
I agree with Dr.Crippen that the gun question is indeed a “hot potato,” and perhaps more than this particular thread needs, since it’s already quite “loaded.” Dr. Crippen, why don’t you share with us just what it is you think about “all that nonsense the gun lobby puts out” in a post on your blog, and I’ll be delighted to come visit with you and carry on a discussion from the perspective of an average US citizen who believes in the Second Amendment, and who also hunts. I can bring the pizza, and you could provide the tea.
Well Dr. Crippen … here I am with the pizza! I do hope you remembered the tea, we’re going to need something to wash it all down with. Actually, a pint might be even nicer … :o)
Since I’ve never heard the gun lobby’s nonsense about “assault weapons” in “glove compartments,” I’m really at a loss on how to answer that charge. Concealed carry is illegal throughout the entire US, with the possible exception of Vermont. In order to have a loaded, concealed gun, you need a permit, which is not an easy thing to acquire in any state. Carrying loaded guns in cars is another story altogether. When we hunt, we have to have the rilfes out in the open, and the rounds locked in the trunk (the boot.) It would be difficult to really make a study of gun laws here, because each state has its own details. I’m not really interested in getting into those details, because that’s beyond the scope of this discussion. What I’d like to say is far more simple …
I don’t belong to the NRA, and I’ve never been active politically for the sake of the 2nd Amendment, however, if I felt that my right to own a firearm were threatened, I would step up to the plate. I sincerely believe that one of the reasons the crime rate is so low in our area is because it’s common knowledge that all of these Yankee farmers are hunters, and that they all have guns in their homes. A criminal will think twice before breaking into a home owned by someone who is armed, and a capable marksman.
Think the following scenario through: let’s say that the state of Illinois decides that they want an unarmed citizenry. Through whatever means, they inform the residents that all gun owners are to turn in their weapons, or face prosecution.
Now, just who do you think is going to obey this mandate?
The criminal? Think again …
The law abiding citizen, the very one who would never use his gun for anything illegal, will be the one who turns it in.
Suddenly, the playing field has changed - the criminal, who is not about to turn his weapons in, now realizes that Mr. John Doe Legal has willingly disarmed himself. What an advantage! Now only the criminal has a distance weapon - unless, that is, if Mr. Doe takes up knife throwing.
If you disarm the honest citizenry, you raise the armed criminal to a superior position of power. There are no longer any serious deterrents keeping those with evil intent from preying upon the innocent.
On a personal note, I live in an ancient house … it was here before the US was a nation, and before Maine split away from Massachusetts. It’s in truly deplorable shape, and I have no means whatsoever of locking doors or windows. We’re out in the country, and my husband works nights. However, I can still lay down at night and go to sleep, because I know that I am able to defend myself, and when my children were small, I knew that I was capable of protecting them. Anyone who breaks into here would place his life in serious danger. I do not recommend it.
And as far as guns for sport - my husband and I have been hunters as long as we’ve been together. It took me a very long while to balance my sympathy for the deer, or the moose, with a bit of common sense … but I was finally able to realize that the only differences between my own putting meat in the freezer, and buying it at the store were 1) cost, and 2) esthetics. The meat I buy in the grocery case was no less alive at one time … than the meat I can provide by hunting. The major difference is that I did the work myself, and that I’m not seeing it disguised, nicely wrapped in clear, sanitary looking pastic - which makes it so easy for people to forget just what it is they’re buying.
If anything, it’s made me appreciate the life the creature all the more. I now know what the cost was behind my freezer full of venison. Being a soft hearted city girl, that took some major “getting over,” and I still have to fight a lump in my throat when I see a creature die.
All of that said, although hunting and target practicing are the only ways we ever really use our guns, we do know how to use them, and we are able to protect ourselves. If the government instituted gun control, many of us who are law abiding citizens would become instant criminals out of fear for our lives, and the rest of us would become easy targets for the real criminals who are just lurking in the wings, waiting for the bleeding liberals to force a peaceful citizenry to disarm.
And finally - I hate platitudes, but I just can’t help myself, I’m going to have to pull this one out, because being a platitude doesn’t make it any less true: guns do not kill people, people kill people. If somehow, you manage to remove all guns from everyone … including the criminals … those who want to kill people will just use a different means. Pipe bombs … ricin … they will find a way. That is the ugly truth. Banning guns will not solve that problem - it will just remove one more means of defense from an increasingly defenseless populace.
Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia,
being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.
Click here for a previous post about guns.
Addendum - March 4, 2006:
Through William at Amazing Facts … thank you, William!
Brady Gun Control Campaign All Wet, Say Nation’s Top Cops
3/2/2006 5:30:00 PM
To: State Desk, Legal Reporter
Contact: Richard Pearson of Illinois State Rifle Association, 815-635-3198 Web: http://www.isra.org
SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 2 /U.S. Newswire/ — The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):
The very foundations of the gun control movement were rocked today by the results of a survey taken by the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP). In a nutshell, the survey shows that the nation’s top law enforcement officers believe that average citizens can be trusted to responsibly own firearms; that criminals ignore gun control laws; and that concealed carry laws reduce crime.
These revelations come as a stark contrast to gun control movement propaganda that asserts that police officials feel that our streets would be safer if law-abiding citizens were disarmed.
Specifically, the survey revealed that 93 percent of chiefs and sheriffs felt that citizens should be able to purchase firearms for sport and self defense; 73 percent opposed so-called “one gun a month” laws; 96 percent believed that criminals ignore gun control laws and; 63 percent supported laws that allow citizens to carry defensive firearms as a means to control crime.
“These survey results are important and timely for the law- abiding Illinois firearm owner,” said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. “The General Assembly is currently considering HB2414 which would ban most of the guns owned by law-abiding citizens in Illinois. The legislature is also considering legislation that would shut down most of the lawful gun shops in the state. The supposed justification for these two bills is that they would result in a safer society. Well, based on the chiefs’ survey, it would appear that the gun control movement is standing all alone on that assertion.”
“I hope that the Illinois General Assembly is paying close attention to what our top cops have to say,” continued Pearson. “It’s time for the legislature to stop trying to find ways to harass the law-abiding gun owner and start finding ways to keep criminals in jail and off our streets.
—
Since 1903, the ISRA has been the state’s leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Sneeze/Nausea Connection - March 2007 Update:
To Be ... Or Not To Be ...:
It Must Be a Miracle!: