Posted on 05/07/2012 8:40:36 AM PDT by marktwain
It's a Clint Eastwood kind of country, a go-ahead-and-make-my-day-and-age.
I get it. I do.
With the blessing of the founders and the High Court, you have the undisputed, undefeated right to bear-hug all the arms you want.
I don't want to take your guns.
I'm not trying to outlaw your guns.
And I wouldn't pry them from your cold dead hands if I could.
But Lord knows -- even Charlton Heston's ghost knows -- we need to talk about guns.
Because the biggest threats to the Second Amendment are not the anti-gun, tree-hugging Greenpeace hippies. The biggest threats to responsible gun owners -- and to public safety -- are idiots with guns.
Just count the recent incidents, rapid fire.
Shots were fired in the air at a carnival near Century Plaza, at Railroad Park on a Sunday afternoon, and twice on the Strip in Tuscaloosa.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets were fired into houses across Birmingham on Feb. 29 and March 20th, on March 26th, March 31st, April 8th and April 10th. Children were sleeping when slugs hit a house on John Bryan Road. Seven more bullets hit an Avenue U apartment. Ten hit a 27th Street home.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Last week, somebody even shot into the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, wounding a Saturn V rocket. If that's not an attack on America, what is?
Bang, bang.
Dang.
Guns really don't kill people. Idiots with access to guns kill people. They buy them on the black market, or by deception, and get their firearms training on MTV. They shoot into the air. They fire before they respect bullets.
I asked the NRA, the police and the sheriff for answers. Is there a way, a chance, a hope of teaching gun safety to these idiot owners of illegal guns?
"I don't think they give a rip about gun safety," Jefferson County Chief Deputy Randy Christian said. "We would entertain the thought of even teaching them gun safety if they are brave enough to show up. Doubt we will get any takers."
I doubt it, too.
But why not try it? Prayers and processions, gun buybacks and waiting periods have not solved our problem. Perhaps gun safety training for thugs -- or marksmanship -- is the answer.
If you can't go straight, shoot straight. Spare innocent lives.
Of course, it is never so simple. Because in real life, real tragedy comes when real people -- even those who act like idiots -- wind up on one side or the other of very real bullets.
On Gravine Island, 17-year-old purported burglar Summer Moody was shot in the head by vigilantes who claimed it was meant as a warning shot. In Birmingham, 13-year-old Ja'Quares Walker wielded a gun in a botched robbery, and was shot dead because of it.
The shootings were, the way the facts now appear, legally justifiable. But that doesn't mean the deaths were not tragic. It is tragic each time a gun is pulled and a deadly chain of events set into motion.
We do have a gun problem. But it's not a Second Amendment issue. It's a First Amendment issue.
We need to learn again to talk about guns in realistic, honest ways, without all the knee-jerk political baggage. We need to talk safety, and consequences. We need to discuss ways of limiting gun supplies to criminals without threatening the rights of responsible owners.
We need to talk. If we can't? Well, then we're the idiots.
Seems to me that this is exactly what is supposed to happen.
The question I ask is who are the people firing into the air? Illegal mexicans perhaps? And who's firing into houses? Gangbangers perhaps? These actions don't seem like things a normal American would do.
Perhaps we need to crack down on illegals and others who are not assimilated into American culture.
So, these "Vigilantes" are to be blamed for making an attempt to avoid letting the burlar continue about his business? An armed thug gets killed during a robbery attempt, and we are supposed to feel sorry for him?
If these degenerates opted to work for what they wanted, instead of stealing it from other people - then everyone would be alive, happy and prospering, wouldn't they?
Half of the population are not termed looters by accident.
If liberals ever come to recognize this, then there is hope.
Until he recognizes the right of people to defend themselves, instead of branding them vigilantes, and stops showing sympathy for those who would use guns to rob others, then I will believe that he is open to the facts. For now, I believe he want to dialog to change gun-owners’ opinions.
Personally, I don't think the dead mentioned in this article were acting.
We used to have laws forbidding gun ownership and/or possession by aliens and other groups- notorious for killing each other-but egalitarianism dictates that aliens and “others” can carry firearms. Thus, we have granted “equal rights” are are seeing what “equal rights” really means!
We need to talk about cars. The amount of deaths caused by cars is a tragedy.
Ban cars, if it only saves one life....
Half the population is below average.
As someone once said, “I’d rather die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather did, rather than screaming for my life, like his passengers did.”
A lot of these “rights” discussions are meant to apply rationalism to get the reader to trade the right of one individual for the rights of a number of individuals.
What kind of a lunatic thinks that having 13-year-old armed robbers getting shot dead is a "safety" issue?
I'm encouraged by the desperate nature of the latest arguments from the anti-gunners. We are definitely winning this battle, though it still seems glacially slow here in the People's Republik of Kalifornia.
It's vital that we prevent Obama from appointing any more Supreme Court Justices. He's done enough damage already. Romney would accidently choose better nominees than Obama would choose intentionally.
Firearms are responsible for fewer than 10% of violent crimes; let’s talk about the other weapons first.
“...Ja’Quares Walker wielded a gun in a botched robbery, and was shot dead because of it.”
And Mr Archibald has a problem with this, because?
“We need to discuss ways of limiting gun supplies to criminals...”
Mission accomplished/ problem solved, Mr Archibald.
Typical elitist clap-trap.
You see, because you possess a gun you are obvioulsy as enlightened as Mr. Archibald. You need to take the time to sit down and discuss gun ownership with the emminently superior intellect that Mr. Archibald has and his obvious grasp of the “arms” debate. We are hoping that you will gain some progress in disposing of your Neanderthal ways of thinking.
No we don’t believe you will ever be as bright as Mr. Archibald. You can make progress though.
Here, take the red pill.
And by people drinking from unclean garden hoses, too! (;^{0
...obviously NOT as enlightened...
Never too busy to proof, Clete!
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