I confess to a bit of prejudice in addressing the issue of guns and efforts to "control" ownership and use of the same. Here are some things I admit which reveal my "prejudice:"
- I am the owner of a number of guns with the handguns being greater in number than my rifles and shotguns. My handguns range in size from a .357 magnum with an 8 inch barrel to a very small mini-mag 22 cal. revolver which lies snugly in the palm of my hand. In this collection are 9 mm semi-automatics, including a German Luger built in 1918, and 32 cal. semi-automatics with one being a duplicate of a weapon used by 007 agent James Bond in the film series.
- I have a sticker on my front storm door which is red in color with the following inscription: WARNING - This property is protected by an Armed American Citizen - Absolutely nothing in here is worth dying for!
- I have a licensed permit which allows me to legally carry any of my handguns concealed and loaded, except in areas where laws override the permit such as post office and other government property, public schools, and most colleges and universities.
- In conclusion on this matter I need to say also that my guns have killed less people than Teddy Kennedy's Oldsmobile which he owned a number of years ago! Teddy is great on getting rid of guns but he has never campaigned on getting rid of Oldsmobiles!
The Virginia Tech tragedy did a number of things in addition to shocking us and bringing out the worst in competitive media exploitation of the tragedy -- it also revived the "anti-gun" movement in which a number of high profile people in government and the entertainment industry (which has its own way of promoting violence daily) begin to froth at the mouth and rant on about the need to get rid of guns!
Can you stop and think for a minute in a very sober and common sense fashion? Consider this:
- Guns are not the number 1 killer -- compare the number killed by guns in a year's time to the number killed senselessly due to alcohol use, beginning with drunk driver victims plus all the other incidents involving violent death due to someone having a few "drinks" -- and in some of these firearms were the tools, but if the person hadn't guzzled some booze, it is likely the death would not have taken place! Will anything be done to curb and eventually eliminate the booze epidemic -- no, because even many of the "anti-gun" people who want to confiscate my guns just have to have their nip of booze on a regular basis! So in their stupidity and lack of common sense they will pursue their goal of removing guns from our nation under the delusion we will not have any more "massacres!" They forget that all they will accomplish will be taking the guns away from the law abiding citizens -- thousands of the criminal element will still have theirs!
- Second, a careful study of past incidents of mass shootings will uncover the disturbing fact that they took place in what was considered a "gun-free" environment! Cities such as New York or Washington DC which have the strictest gun control laws on the books (if you are caught with a hand gun in one of those places, they are almost ready to hang you without trial and jury) but also have extremely high murder rates, many involving firearms. Colleges, universities, and public schools are "gun free" by law. Even most campus security officers are not permitted to carry firearms. A person who is determined to wipe out a bunch of people in a gun shooting spree is aware that he doesn't have to worry about some of his potential victims carrying a weapon. What if a couple of students at Virginia Tech had been carrying weapons or would have had quick access to them? Yea, I know -- it's crazy to suggest such a thing is it not? But numerous incidents across this country which don't make headlines show that when a citizen is armed in his home, for instance, and an intruder breaks in to rob and/or kill, the weapon in the hands of a homeowner has made a difference!
- Third -- BUT the big issue that is deliberately avoided by the high profile people on their anti-gun rampage is the massacre of about 100,000 unborn children every month is this republic. Talk about violence -- what do you call an intentional act that results in a human which God is forming in the womb being chopped and torn to pieces? We claim to be shocked when someone kills another person and then dismembers the body, placing the parts in garbage bags etc! Yet there is an eerie silence coming especially from those who try to convince us that if we take away the guns, then all the violence and the killing will be ended. In the right column of this BLOG is a section about the greatest massacre in United States' history. You can view photos of some of the victims -- and remember, they were just as special and precious as the 32 who were shot on the campus of Virginia Tech! But most U.S. citizens, including the frothing-at-the-mouth anti-gun people, couldn't care less!
Amidst all the media in their shark-frenzy attention given to Virginia Tech and newly released information on the person who did the shooting, there was a measure of good news -- a Supreme Court ruling which has upheld the ban on partial birth abortions, but the slaughter of thousands each week still continues -- so we as a nation are not off the hook by any means as the Creator of this universe sees it!
"For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'?" --- Jeremiah 7:5-10
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