Tuesday, July 31, 2012

This Modern World

I'm not for or against gun control because I think both sides make credible points (except for the useless and worthless NRA). I don't believe "Obama wants to get our guns." I believe in the cliche "it's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." I am a gun owner, but I think some of the weapons people are allowed to buy without so much as a blink of the eye is kind of crazy, same with the 100 round clips or kits to make a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic weapon. I believe you should be able to purchase a weapon to protect your family and home, hunt if that's your thing, and collect, but not if you have a criminal history, and/or psychiatric issues--including being prescribed or having been prescribed anti-depressants and/or other psychotropic, anti-anxiety, anti-psychotic drugs. I think background searches aren't too much to put up with when they can prevent even one mass shooting (as if even one were acceptable...). I think the key word in the term "gun nut" is "nut." So, you can see that I straddle this issue pretty evenly. But the point the comic makes is a good one: I've heard people say if there had been someone who was armed in that theater, they would have stopped the shooter before he ammassed such a death toll. But there have been over fifty mass shootings in the US since the 1980s, and not one "armed person" was close enough to stop the killing in any of them? Even at Fort Hood? Just worthy of consideration...(in other words, that's a pretty weak argument since there is no evidence to support the claim that an armed person present in such a situation would stop a mass shooting).

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