Gun Control Takes Center Stage
This is a big topic for a lot of us lately. When there is some sort of shooting in the news, like the one at Newtown Elementary, the argument for gun restrictions is made. Everyone and their mother have been coming up to me lately and talking about how they feel about the gun policy. What I've noticed is a lot of people (or at least the ones that care enough to voice their opinion) are taking an all or nothing stand.
On one side there are the people that feel guns are the root of all evil and therefore should be made illegal (I didn't intend for that to rhyme). Then there is the other group of people. The guns for every woman and child group. These people feel that if their dog got killed, it would of had a better chance of living if it had a semi-automatic machine gun to defend itself. While I don't believe in these extremist ways, I still don't believe our gun regulations are where they should be.
The first question that should be asked is who is really to blame? Some believe it's the shooter while others believe it's the gun itself (take away the guns to fix the problem). Let me throw a situation at you to put this in a better perspective. It's late at night and I'm pounding down a couple beers with my bros at the local bar. We're throwing up high fives and obviously we think we're pretty awesome. The night comes to an end and I get into my car to drive home. On the ay home I run down and kill a power walker on the sidewalk. Who is to blame here? The obvious choice would be the driver, right? Well if people say that guns are the cause of death in shooting, then obviously the car would be the cause of death when a drunk driver gets into an accident. Why not blame the bartender? Or even the alcohol. If alcohol was banned in the US there would be no more drunk driving accidents. We could even blame the power walker. If someone is out power walking that late at night don't they deserve to be hit? The person that gets the blame is the driver. And why is that? Because each person is responsible for his or her own actions. The minute I pick up and drink that glass of beer I assume responsibility for what happens next. People know the dangers of guns, and as soon as a person picks one up they are responsible for whatever happens.
The best thing to do for gun regulation is not to ban guns, but take a harder stand on them. It needs to be tougher for people to acquire guns illegally and there should be harsher penalties for those who get caught with illegal weaponry. There is no way to eliminate gun crimes, the only thing that can be is to try and take a harsher stand.
Let me just end this with a couple of statistics as something to think about. In 2009 there were a little over 2.4 million deaths in the US. Of that 2.4 mil about 1 mil were from heart disease and cancer. 11,493 people died in 2009 by homicide with a firearm. For every 100 people that died.5 of them were killed by a gun. Here is an idea. Let's take our resources and devote them towards something that is actually killing people in the country like heart disease or cancer and see how that turns out.
On one side there are the people that feel guns are the root of all evil and therefore should be made illegal (I didn't intend for that to rhyme). Then there is the other group of people. The guns for every woman and child group. These people feel that if their dog got killed, it would of had a better chance of living if it had a semi-automatic machine gun to defend itself. While I don't believe in these extremist ways, I still don't believe our gun regulations are where they should be.
The first question that should be asked is who is really to blame? Some believe it's the shooter while others believe it's the gun itself (take away the guns to fix the problem). Let me throw a situation at you to put this in a better perspective. It's late at night and I'm pounding down a couple beers with my bros at the local bar. We're throwing up high fives and obviously we think we're pretty awesome. The night comes to an end and I get into my car to drive home. On the ay home I run down and kill a power walker on the sidewalk. Who is to blame here? The obvious choice would be the driver, right? Well if people say that guns are the cause of death in shooting, then obviously the car would be the cause of death when a drunk driver gets into an accident. Why not blame the bartender? Or even the alcohol. If alcohol was banned in the US there would be no more drunk driving accidents. We could even blame the power walker. If someone is out power walking that late at night don't they deserve to be hit? The person that gets the blame is the driver. And why is that? Because each person is responsible for his or her own actions. The minute I pick up and drink that glass of beer I assume responsibility for what happens next. People know the dangers of guns, and as soon as a person picks one up they are responsible for whatever happens.
The best thing to do for gun regulation is not to ban guns, but take a harder stand on them. It needs to be tougher for people to acquire guns illegally and there should be harsher penalties for those who get caught with illegal weaponry. There is no way to eliminate gun crimes, the only thing that can be is to try and take a harsher stand.
Let me just end this with a couple of statistics as something to think about. In 2009 there were a little over 2.4 million deaths in the US. Of that 2.4 mil about 1 mil were from heart disease and cancer. 11,493 people died in 2009 by homicide with a firearm. For every 100 people that died.5 of them were killed by a gun. Here is an idea. Let's take our resources and devote them towards something that is actually killing people in the country like heart disease or cancer and see how that turns out.
