The enemies of reason deny or distort established facts. They do that when they fight the teaching of evolution in biology classes, when they deny the human origin of global climate change or the devastating effect of over-population to the ecosystem of our planet. Some of them even adhere to the ancient believe, that we live on a flat earth in the center of the universe.
The opponents of gun control belong into the same category of people. They cannot acknowledge that wherever weapons are not allowed, such as in airplanes, or trains people feel safer, and intentional or accidental killings are mostly absent there. They also fail to understand the simple fact that our country has a dismal record in regard of gun related deaths by homicides, accidents and suicides. In the year 2011 alone, 32,163 gun deaths have been reported, a figure about five times higher than the number of our fallen soldiers in eleven years of war. The public at large seems to live comfortably with these terrible facts. Only some mass killings are able to stir emotions. However, the 28 dead people in Newtown are only a tiny fraction of the total death toll. It looks as if it were OK if we are taken out one by one; but it seems to be against our ethics if several people are being killed at once.
The comparison with countries with stricter gun laws clearly proves that the availability of guns is directly related to the number of shot-dead people. Yes, I know, guns do not kill. But man with his bare hands rarely kills either. What is deadly is the combination of both.
Well, there is the second amendment, which gives us the right to own any kind of weapon we desire no matter how many are killed or injured intentionally or not. The right of the victims to live seems of secondary importance.
It is strange that only half of the second amendment is significant to the gun loving crowd. They constantly overlook that the right of weapon-ownership comes with a string attached. The right to own arms is contingent to the obligation of the armed citizen to being part of the country’s militia. This militia demanded by the constitution is a support unit to the land and sea forces of our Nation, and when in service, members of the militia fall under the jurisdiction of the military justice system, as stated in the fifth amendment of our constitution.
I wonder what our patriotic gun owners would do if the federal government would call on them to take their arms, leave house and family, and join the fight in our war zones. If such a system were still in place, we could have saved a lot of money and our deficit would be smaller.
By no means does the constitution allow private citizens to form bands, which nowadays call themselves militias, to use their arms fighting our elected government for perceived or real infringements of their civil rights. For this purpose we have elections and other rights spelled out in the constitution in places other than the second amendment.
Whenever I visit a place where large crowds gather, a mall, a sports event or the like, I cannot help to be aware that about half of the people around me are owners of fire arms. I just can pray that all of them are as law abiding and responsible as the National Rifle Association claims they are; that none of them ever will get drunk or take narcotic drugs, and that they never will get a mental illness that may cloud their judgement. I imagine all these people honing their killing proficiency in shooting ranges taking aim at cardboard targets in the shape of human silhouettes so that they can responsibly take out any intruder who came to steel their television set or other things from their homes. I also know that some of the people around me are carrying concealed weapons. I cannot help to think that they are eagerly hoping for an opportunity to use lethal force to defend their fellow un-armed citizen from a real or perceived terrorist attack, or to cleanly take out a guy holding up the cashier.
Our country is like a fairytale land, where a terrible monster eats people one by one. But the country’s citizen are not aware that the monster exists. A cadre of well trained priests is able to persuade them to voluntarily sacrifice fellow citizen randomly and on a regular basis. The priests even provide the tools of slaughter and they are able to convince killers and victims alike that it is all in the name of freedom.