Here’s a good take on the
second amendment I happen to agree with it, as the evidence shows that a lack of guns puts the citizenry at great risk vis a vi the government. Clearly we are already greatly at risk form each other, despite evidence that this is the most peaceful time in *all *recorded history. that is of concern to us in two ways: we have to be very careful of each other, as the already discussed
graphic shows, and we have to see to it that the government doesn’t use that against us. That, despite the wildly paranoid notion that Obama is down the path and coming for
our guns.
Also, that graphic, which showed me info about gun ownership I didn’t know as a former NRA member, (I still own a gun) didn’t mention the number of guys who shot their balls or butts off playing “I can stick it in my belt!” I guess, like the lady at the flea market looking at a rifle who asked the vendor, “is it loaded?” forgot what several of us who didn’t know each other all exclaimed in unison: “There isn’t one that isn’t!” And for me, that points to the actual practical problem: maturity and training.
I read somewhere that the level of emotional maturity of most people in situations outside the normal day-to-day, and very often in it, is somewhere between 2yo>12yo. Given my attendance at some political, religious, and other gatherings, that estimate may be high. Just kidding, but you know what I mean. And sorry, in my neck of the woods, where it is legal to shoot anywhere in the County, (heard six rounds over 5ive minutes near the convenience store the other day) and there are serious 4wd trucks running around with confederate and libertarian flags,* and attend Tea Party rallies here, you might understand my concern in this direction.
So I don’t care that fewer men have more guns, I care that they might have an unnecessarily self fulfilling narrow perspective on the world and their place in it. I have’t met them in any of the volunteer organisations I’m part of, or at any City or County meeting, unless it was about guns, or maybe taxes. I also have some neighbors of that ilk, and they are actually very nice, and we often chat or even help each other out. So it isn’t a broad spectrum thing except in some more extreme para military scenarios in the hills around here. But it is in the narrowness of world view and hair trigger emotionalism that I would say that there is a problem.
All that is to say that there are rocks everywhere, but we aren’t always picking them up and throwing them at each other, though some do. And a rifle or handgun is basically just an extremely sophisticated way of throwing a rock–or many. So it isn’t that they are around, it is that they are so easy to pick up, and, generally, it is the people ready in their mind to use them for idealistic, paranoid, or mayhem purposes who are most likely to pick them up. There’s the rub.
Why? Because in all the places I’ve been where tourists are welcome, Americans are at or near the top of the list of persona non grata, as much as our (now more colorful) greenbacks are very welcomed. This is because, on inquiry, we are perceived with some exceptions as loud, arrogant, and unappreciative of what is around us. And often that is how we treat each other as well. It doesn’t matter. We are not taking care of our own green acre, and under the auspices of such as the Koch brothers, we are allowing ourselves through ignorance and lack of perspective to become very dangerously polarized in many areas while emotionalism is encouraged.
This is perfect tinder for people who want bad things for us. As Hitler said: “it is great luck for leaders that men don’t think!” And to this end, while so many are hyperventilating about our Nation being “#1!,” in the last 25 or so years we have gone from that, according to international measures of social progress, to somewhere around 17th. In many areas almost twice s low, but that is about our average status. What we are first in the world in are the percentage of our population in prison, the highest child poverty rate of any industrialized nation, more military spending that the next 17-21 countries put together, and, perhaps most importantly, the vastness of the gap between what an employee and the CEO of a company earns. It is over 750 times greater.
In other words, in a time when there is somewhat of a possibility of the citizenry actually needing guns, the maturity of those who might use them has radically declined, and they might just use them on the very people who, as compatriots, would have solved or prevented the situation we are now in, and are tending ever more to throw gasoline on the artificial and massive twig barrier between us. Is it true that “We have met the enemy and he is us!”? In many ways, yes.
That might be where to look for a solution to the guns. No one sane is going to deliberately shoot himself. But poverty, wage inadequacy and inequality,and politically incited rabble -rousing (yes, us!) is the kind of thing that happens in a war: the enemy is objectified, and given epithetic names: krout, jap, gook, towel-head, Democrat, Republican.
Figure it out, folks. Follow the money. It may not be about what’s in your holster–or your hymnal–padner!
*If anyone wishes to see a successful libertarian government, I suggest Somalia as a viable example.
** It is almost impossible for a single parent to pay for an apartment and associated costs, even if one holds a full time minimum wage job! The whole point, as Roosevelt said, of the minimum wage law when he signed it, was to provide a living wage. For some workers that is still less that $3!!!
. I said open for debate.