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Every day you can turn on a TV or open a Newspaper and there has been another shooting. You have thousands of people wanting gun control and you have thousands of people wanting more guns and then the cycle repeats. Do you know what I think the definition of insanity is? It is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. When it comes to guns we are nuts and this is coming from a gun owner.

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. That is the second amendment. It is just one sentence and should be read as just one sentence. Instead it has been dissected like it is multiple sentences. There has been probably a thousand different opinions written about this one sentence but the one that has affected us them most is probably the one handed down by the Supreme Court in 2008 with the District of Columbia Vs. Heller. When this ruling came down it helped open the flood gates to the problems we have now. Since the District of Columbia Vs. Heller came down there has been an increase in gun deaths in America. Since 2008 there has been a spike in school shootings as well.

Are we safer today with more guns on the streets? I think that the statics will show you that we are not. In 1993 there was a shooting at a McDonalds in Kenosha where a relative of a couple of friends was killed while dinning there. Two people died and a third was wounded. They did not know the assailant, it was just a random shooting. The victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It shook the City of Kenosha in 1993. I was having a conversation with a co-worker John after that and he had said that if there had been a good guy with a gun in there that wouldn’t have happened. The good guy could have stopped it. That conversation I had with John has stayed with me for a long time. A good guy with a gun. That statement has stayed with me for all these years. I will ask this question if you were a good guy with a gun would you run to the gunfire? Soldiers don’t, they are taught to evaluate the situation and then take appropriate action. You just don’t run into the line of fire, you duck and evaluate. So I have been asking myself all these years, Would a good guy with a gun stopped a shooting?  And in most cases the answer I think is no. Why? Because they you don’t know that there is a shooting until it is already happening so to me that argument very seldom holds up.

I wonder how many of us think of ourselves as a good guy with a gun? I think of myself as a good guy. I own 7 guns. I think I have the right to protect my home and would not hesitate to protect it. I think that every person that purchases a gun thinks of themselves as the good guy. Even the gangbanger that buys his gun on the streets or steals himself a gun thinks of himself as the good guy protecting his turf from an opposing gang.  I think that Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael  thought of themselves as good guys when they picked up their guns. Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead and those two guys that thought they were good guys with a gun are serving a life sentence because they took the law into their own hands and killed an innocent man. They tried to justify it saying that they were protecting the neighborhood and that they were defending themselves. It doesn’t take much for a good guy with a gun to become a bad guy with a gun. All it takes is just of moment of bad judgment.

Nov 27th and Nov 30th  blogs I wrote about the second amendment and analyzed what I thought the thinking was behind it so I will not try and repeat those argument since it wasn’t that long ago. What we have to decide as a society is what actually makes us safe. I truly have never believed that was the purpose of the Second Amendment to keep our streets safe. Our streets are not getting safer and that  is a problem that has to eventually be dealt with. Over 50% of the public believe in stricter gun laws. Do I want my guns taken away? and the answer is “no”. Do I want the right to protect my home taken away? and the answer is “no”. Do I want fewer guns on the streets? and the answer is “yes”. I have no idea what type of gun training or education that you have had. I have no idea what your mental state is. You, carrying a gun does not make me feel safer. If anything it makes me feel less safe.

Do we have a right to kill another man because we are scared? That argument, even by police, does not hold up all the time.

 

 

Second Amendment: Doctrine and Practice | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

U.S. Gun Death Rate Jumps 17 Percent Since 2008 Supreme Court District of Columbia v. Heller Decision Affirming Right to Own a Handgun for Self-Defense | Violence Policy Center (vpc.org)

• Chart: Number of School Shootings Increased Every Decade | Statista

 

 

 

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