Pete; barnbwt;
NOW we get to the crux of the matter! Firearms fit the absolute power of life and death in to your very hand. But, as soon as metal and wood (or plastic, polymer) capable of taking life meet hand,
intent becomes the predominant - arguably, the ONLY - issue.
Which is why there is such a push now, for "moderation" based on some psychological or mental litmus test.
Follow me through the chain here;
Firearms = lethal force = power
This is the basis of the anti-gun movement.
* People fear death.
* People have increased fear of dying of unnatural causes, over natural causes ("to die before one's time").
* People have increased fear of being part of a MASS death incident (for instance; I have long fought an irrational fear of flying in commercial mass-transit context, but I love flying in chartered aircraft; I also fight a fear of subways, trains, and buses; irrational, yes, but simultaneously, part of my nature, and "wiring".)
Since firearms are often used in mass murder incidents, and receive massive media exposure, this plays upon the fears of people like me, so I can relate. This is despite it being such a very low cause of death, % wise, as a tiny fraction of homicides overall, which itself is a tiny fraction of all causes of death, overall.
So their arguments become as barbed as ours, but - oddly enough -
both arguments stem from the same exact root cause.
Read that again. Or read it a different way:
The fundamental driving factor of the gun control movement is the same fundamental driving factor of the gun rights movement.
Banning firearms outright has not worked, due to our culture, bill of rights, and strong resistance in society. Keep in mind, no matter WHAT they say to the contrary,
removing guns from society is the overall goal of gun control activists. Nothing short will work - for them to feel
safe, you have to entirely remove this "threat vector" from the public.
Why do I say that? Because they fear themselves or their family dying at the hands of a gun. Period. ANY gun. This is the fundamental basis, and holds true if they are a tyrannical politician trying to commit genocide, or a soccer mom. Handgun, rifle, shotgun, doesn't matter. These people, at the very core, DO NOT WANT TO DIE VIOLENTLY AT THE HANDS OF ANOTHER.
Just the
thought of someone owning a gun makes them queasy, let alone carrying a gun, because that means A) that person can shoot and kill them on a whim, and B) that some people around them may - at any time - have weapons, and therefore, carry the power to kill them wherever they feel like it. (Which, on a tangent, also leads to "gun free zones" - which amount to nothing more than a "feel good thought shield" to calm troubled minds, yet has not shown a single effect on quelling school shootings, shootings in public places, and so on; in reality, it's a fact that "gun free zones" actually make shootings WORSE when they do happen.)
Since they cannot effectively remove all of them from society, and face stiff resistance to this in our particular country, the next step in the logic trail follows:
If they can't control the TOOL [method], they want to control the USER.
Here we enter the wide variety of gun control legislation.
The latest fad? Mind-state. It's a nasty one because it's completely ambiguous. It also won't work; as firearms can still be stolen or a mindset of a stable person can change with time.
Examples:
** Mid-life onset of schizophrenia;
** severe depression;
** instant shift in mindset (jealous rage, vengeance of a battered/killed loved one, etc)
(Those represent a few of a wide variety of cases where a normal person with healthy outlook and views, would at some unknown point in the future become a NON normal person with a skewed world view)
Am I afraid of someone "going postal"?
You bet your ass I am. Because I'm not allowed to protect myself outside of my home, in the state I live in.
Here-in lies the Catch-22, of the rather brilliant argument they are putting forth.
If I'm afraid of leaving my house, for fear of being shot, then I am suffering from a mental imbalance, because my fear is unfounded, and truly insignificant, statistically speaking. Thus, I would fail their "sound mind" criteria as I am clinically paranoid. Yet, they are NOT mentally imbalanced or clinically paranoid for fearing guns enough to pass such legislation, even thought it is effectively the same argument.
You ever hear of the "pot calling the kettle black"?
That is precisely what we are facing. Paranoia and delusion behind the written law.
And that, my friends, troubles me on a very deep, and fundamental level. For when we draft legislature and govern ourselves off of paranoia and fear of the common man, what does that say about our society?
What have we learned in the post 9-11 society, if not to fear our fellow man, to trust no one, to assume guilt until proven innocent?
If you think we have "won" the battle with the last supreme court ruling; if you think we can rest on our laurels and proclaim ourselves the true inheritors of the 2nd amendment, if you think this fight is over and that the pendulum will swing forever in our favor, with concealed carry and right to keep and bear arms forever...
Think again.
OUR society entered a downward spiral where we fear everything, a little over a decade ago. This has resulted in a new generation which is willing to trade freedom for security. Your right to keep and bear arms has NEVER been in as much danger as it is today - the new generation isn't even allowed to TALK about firearms for the first 13 years of their education. The media is almost universally anti-gun. The internet is a feeding frenzy of belief exchange, and
fear spreads faster and stronger than hope.
Wear seat belts. Dead citizens do not pay taxes.
Think properly. Mentally unstable citizens can't hold a job down, and don't pay taxes.
Don't smoke. Unhealthy citizens die early, and can't pay taxes.
Stand orderly in line, and don't complain about the rubber gloves. Travel is a privilege, not a right. Can't have an entire plane of well-off tax payers go down!
And so on.. and so on..
Gun control is a serious symptom of a much worse problem; paranoia on a social level, spanning our entire civilization.
No, don't rest, not for one second.
Spread a message of hope.