To this quote I'd like to add two pro-gun clichés and two New York Times headlines:
The Clichés:
1) If guns were outlawed only outlaws would have guns.
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2) Guns don't kill people, people do.
The NY Times Headlines (August 6, early and late editions):
1) Trump Urges Unity Vs Racism
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2) Assailing Hate But Not Guns
The Times headlines and article came after President Donald Trump spoke to the nation following the mass shooting murders in El Paso and Dayton this past weekend. There was so much criticism coming at the newspaper for its first headline...which critics claimed failed to capture the essence of Trump's address...that they changed it between editions. The President did speak out against racism and for national unity...but he also gave a variation on the second of my two cited clichés with the above quote, claiming that the gun doesn't pull its own trigger. No kidding, sir, yet I've heard this kind of foolish argument before by gun advocates, implying that since guns don't shoot people by themselves, then they're somehow okay and shouldn't be part of any discussion...and tagging the mentally ill with blame for gun violence doesn't correspond to the facts as I know them. No, it's the wrong guns (military-style weapons with multiple rounds increased by high-capacity magazines) in the wrong hands (only the military and law enforcement should have them, in my opinion) that is causing the problem with these evil mass shooters using them to pick off multitudes of innocent people in stores, places of worship, schools, concerts, festivals, workplaces...or any other locale where people gather in numbers. So although it's commendable that Trump spoke out against racism and hate, he has yet to explain why it's quite all right for civilians to be able to legally acquire semi-automatic rifles that can be used to inflict massive carnage quickly on large numbers of people, as preferred as they may legitimately be by some sportsmen with their game hunting. Still, from where I stand the public's security far outweighs the enhancement of some people's hunting experiences. It's true that many more murders are caused through the abuse of handguns...and to be sure, by other means than through firearms. Restricting these higher-powered weapons will not thwart evil people from trying to murder others...and sometimes tragically succeeding. But you would not be looking at these horrendous casualty figures had the mass shooters been more limited in their choice of murder weapon. Regarding that first cliché above, it sadly has much truth to it. Localities and states that greatly restrict legal gun ownership put their law-abiding citizens in a helpless situation against the criminal elements operating there who can easily bring in their weapons from outside. And even if the nation as a whole enacted stricter laws against these military-level guns, we would still be overrun with them for years...and no doubt a thriving black market would develop as well. As for more stringent background checks for gun buyers, I wonder how many of the mass shooters over the past several years would have been caught and prevented from building up their arsenals if the laws now being pushed had already been in place...probably not that many, I'm guessing. Doesn't sound like I'm very optimistic about where this is all going, does it? Well, give me something positive to latch onto, then, while I reflect on the somber conclusion that we live in a culture that idolizes and glorifies violence, inviting evil into our midst while refusing to acknowledge it for what it is...
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