Guns

I come from a gun loving family.  Yep, you read that correctly.  My entire life there have been guns around me.  I have personally shot an automatic weapon, a semi automatic weapon, a rifle, a shotgun, and held a handgun.  I know a ton of people who own guns.  Whether they are owned for recreational sport, competitive shooting, hunting, or for animal protection on the farm, they all had guns.  I am not uneducated on gun ownership.  I am not at arm's length from the issue of gun ownership and how it would affect those around me to own, or not own a gun.  That is why I write this because it affects the people around me.

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people".

Fuck off.  There I said it.  That statement needs to be told to fuck off.  People with guns kill people.  A lot of people, and fast.  If I had a knife I could kill a few people before I was de-armed.  I would have to get close to you to stab you to death.  It takes time and accuracy to kill someone with a knife and to do so before you could take it away from me and shove it up my ass.  If I had an automatic weapon (or even semi automatic weapon with a massive clip full of bullets as is the case of the Orlando Florida shooter), I could kill a lot of people before I was de-armed.  That is a simple fact.  

"If everyone was armed, this wouldn't have happened."

People are actually arguing that if everyone was armed on Sunday morning in Orlando then the killer could have been stopped.  Maybe that is true, maybe fewer people would have been killed or hurt.  It is also true to say that if the murderer had no access to a gun, especially one holding a large clip of bullets, 49 people would still be alive.  Fact.

"There will always be guns, on the black market".

Yes, that's true.  But they won't be easy to access.  They will be expensive and hard to find.  You will need to know a criminal to get one.  Oh and if you know criminals and can get a gun on the black market, you probably are a criminal, and it's my personal opinion that criminals should not have easy access to guns.  A way to limit their access is to limit everyone's overall access.  Less guns, less killings.  If we don't allow them to be owned, less people will own them, duh.  Less guns in circulation, equals less people with guns, duh.  Less people with guns overall, equals less people filled with hate with guns.  Especially guns with these massive clips full to the tits with bullets.  100, 50, 30, 20, even 10 rounds.  They are unnecessary.  And if you don't believe me on this fact, see Britain, Australia and Canada and our guns deaths.  

"It's my God given right to bear arms".

Nope, that wasn't in the Bible.  Least not that I remember, it's been awhile.  With all the religious based hatred these days I have fallen off my readings.  Do you realize my American friends that the laws for the right to bear arms actually came from English laws and traditions?  A country which then banned the right to own a gun sometime in the 1950s I believe.  And since then, no mass shootings.  Lots of knife attacks.  Never almost 50 dead in one night, by a sole assailant, with a knife.  

Canada had the same laws as the USA and over time we have adjusted them to the point that there are strict rules as to who and how you can get a weapon and the types of weapons you can get.  The AR 15 assault rifle used in these mass shootings in the USA can be owned by a Canadian!!!!  Did you know that my Canadian readers?  BUT, the clips you can use in your gun in Canada can only hold so many bullets.  They do sell the bigger clips but with a rivet in them that restricts holding full capacity.  AND these guns are still considered a restricted weapon with the small capacity clips.  Remember these guns were invented for military purposes only.  So in Canada special rules apply for ownership, safekeeping, and even how the gun is allowed to be transported and why it's being moved.  Oh, and here, you cannot walk out your back door and fire off a few rounds.  Personally, as a starting point, I think they should be forced to stop making those high capacity clips all together unless they are made ONLY for guns issued to the military.  5 bullets is MORE than anyone should ever need as a rightful law abiding gun owning every day citizen.  

"It's my constitutional right to bear arms"

Yes, yes, that is factual.  In your constitution it tells you that you indeed have the right to bear arms.  It reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed".  Are you militia?  Do you plan to be militia?   Are you worried you won't be a free state?  Is someone threatening your freedom right now, that you are defending with your gun?  Oh they are?  Give me a minute, I am going to get to this.

For the record, at the time this was written into law, your guns needed loading with powder.  I believe they shot once and you had to load it again.   If you want that gun in your house I am all for it.  Have at it.  You can have ten of them if you would like.  Maybe we could limit the carrying on your person rights to three at a time?

"I need to defend myself.  We are at war with the criminal element".  

Really?  You need access to an AR 15, or an AK 47, shooting a hundred rounds per minute to protect yourself?  Are full gangs of criminals breaking into your home in the middle of the night, hundreds of them at a time, swarming in to steal your Timex?  You know what a criminal looks for when they break into your house?  Guns.  Your fucking guns!  

"They're fun".

So, your fun should be more important than the repeated loss of lives?  Is your right to have fun with a deadly weapon more important than a life?  It's fun to snort cocaine, doesn't mean I should have easy access to it at a moments notice!  It's obvious there is a problem with automatic and semi automatic guns with high capacity clips being used to kill innocent people in the United States.  Perhaps then everyone should decide that their right to play with a gun is less important than life?

"I want it on my person in case of an incident like Orlando, or other mass shooting incident.  If more of us were armed this wouldn't happen anymore".

How many stories have we heard where an armed average Joe (or Jane) actually stopped one of these shootings and they were not actually a police officer?  That the person who stopped a mass shooting was just some gun toting redneck carrying around an AR 15 at Dunkin' Donuts?   I can hear the story now, "when I heard the shots I knew I was being called into action and I stopped the tragedy before it happened".  But not really because the assailant also had an AR 15 that they stole from your neighbours house which they used to kill 50 people before you arrived.  I have not seen the NRA talking about this in the news and we know they control everyone and everything so if it happened, it would be on the news.  They would publish the fact that guns saved lives.  They haven't published it because it's not true. 

"We are at war with terrorists".

See above.  You show me how and when an armed average American citizen, non Military, stopped a crime or a terrorist attack and I will consider your argument but until then, as I said before, "come on, really".  

All of you right to bear arms people are using that simply as an excuse because you like to play with guns.  Well I don't think, call me crazy, that for recreational fun anyone needs an automatic or semi automatic gun with a large capacity clip.  Sorry friends and family or now, after reading this, otherwise.  

If you hunt, have a gun.  Keep it safely locked up in a gun case that is secure and not easy for a criminal to steal.  Last time I checked moose, bears, elk, deer etc do not break into your house to be hunted so there is no need for you to be ready at home to hunt in your living room.  Nor is it necessary for you to have a gun in your vehicle.  Do you often pull over and shoot a deer at the side of the road?  Is that even legal?    Or do you need a specific permit to hunt off the highway on the way to work?  People don't hunt with automatic weapons.   At least not the hunters I know.  I know, I know, some of you do hunt with semi automatics.  Listen up, if you can't kill your target in under 5 shots you should be ashamed of yourself and not be hunting.  You are supposed to be skilled when you hunt and put as few bullets (lead) as possible into your kill so you can eat it.  "You eat what you kill", is the saying I believe.  Derived from "you kill what you eat" because when it was first said if ya' didn't, you'd starve to death.  There were no grocery stores when this whole hunting idea came into play.

If you live on a farm and need a gun at the ready as you roam your property in case you see a cougar taking out one of your sheep, have at it.  You can have a gun on your rural property as a farmer protecting his flock.  Some people get dogs or donkeys, I guess you need a gun, okay that's a little more legitimate.  There are less criminal elements looking to steal automatic weapons in the countryside because last time I checked farmers use actual hunting rifles.  Small clip rifles, less bulleted clips.  I don't think you spray your fields full of sheep with bullets using an AR 15 or AK 47?  Most farmers I know take killing animals seriously.  Guns are serious business.  Guns kill.  I like those theories, let's run with those.  

If you are using them for competition, headed to the Olympics, own a gun.  I think you only need it when training at a licensed facility so I guess it could be locked up safe and sound at home huh?  AR 15s with high capacity clips are actually used for competitions if you can believe that.  Where are these competitions?  I assume in a town where your sister is your mother and y'all drink moonshine for breakfast.  Personally I don't think one is considered talented if able to shoot a target with fucking cannons worth of fire power.  You don't spray a target with a hundred bullets and jump up and down yelling "nailed it", do you?  These guns are not necessary for competition.  

Florida has very generous gun ownership laws.  The right to bear arms is strong in the land of Mickey.  Maybe if they weren't so easy to get then a mentally ill man filled with hate wouldn't have gotten one?  

Just as a couple of recommendations in light of these shootings we hear about every single day.  These are just my recommendations as places to start to help solve this problem:

- When your teenager says, "I hate you", or "I hate them", or "I want to die", even "I am running away", take their access to guns away.  If they are caught smoking pot, drinking, or doing meth, perhaps we take their open access to guns away? 

- When your baby learns the code to your gun safe, perhaps you change the code, maybe even where you keep the safe?

- Maybe someone who is Bi Polar, or Schizophrenic (any mental illness really) shouldn't have access to something that could easily kill them or someone else when they have an uncontrollable mood swing?  

- Maybe someone who hits their wife, or kids, shouldn't have access to something they could kill them with?

- Maybe if you are on an FBI watch list, on the no fly list, we should make those just a few of the restrictions to owning a gun?  That would entail changing the 2nd amendment but I can't see how that would affect you?  Aren't you a "law abiding citizen with a god given right to bear arms"?  This has nothing to do with your rights.  This suggestion would just ensure that a terrorist couldn't get a gun.  A mass murderer might be derailed.  And you might have to fill out a few more forms to prove you are just a good ol' American.  Are you saying that this new process, the potential time delay, is more important to you than the children who died at Sandy Hook?  Or the kids seeing a movie?  The people dancing in a bar?

I mean shit, perhaps I am wrong but I think these are good starting points don't you think?

- Maybe, we could make the punishments for any crimes committed with guns (or thwarted by you right to bear arms citizens) so hard that it deters people from using them?  And maybe, if we outlaw large clips as I mention above, if you are caught with one, especially caught committing a crime with one, your punishment is even more.  God help you if you are caught selling large capacity clips.  Throw the book at you!  They are simply not necessary.  

Maybe some of the above recommendations could help?

All I know for sure is this, we need change so that people are not dying.  And if that change means starting with no more AR 15s on the market or in your living room or mine, I am all for it.  At the very least limit the shots that can come out of one as it seems to be easy to get and a personal favourite of murderers.  I do not want it to be so easy, so convenient, to kill people.  And if you don't either I don't know how you can argue otherwise?  Again, it seems like a good place to start because guns, in the hands of human beings, seem to kill people.  

I know you are going to say it's about hatred, it's about terrorism.  It's not the guns fault.  Well, it seems this whole love thing isn't catching on fast enough, I wish it would.  If we need to blame something we can actually change, guns seems like a logical place to start.  They don't get personally offended when we ask them to change their beliefs and hate less.  Sadly we cannot seem to change those accustomed to hatred or being manipulated by their religion or faith to hate for no logical reason.  We are not going to be able to change the fighting over religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation or race tomorrow.  I think it's too much to ask, especially to ask of stupid people.  But we can change gun laws.  Love sure would solve it all though wouldn't it?  The respect and love of life.  The world's problems would be over.  The end. 

Psssssssst...pass that last part along.






Oh and before you get all worried, or pissy, since my diagnosis with a Mental Health issue I can no longer own or have access to a gun in Canada until my doctor, and spouse, say it's okay.  And I am fine with that because sometimes I get too dark.  Sometimes I think about hurting myself.  And I don't need help from a gun that has a great deal of permanence to it's use to harm.