The Importance of Gun Control
By Lady Rhiannon
No democratic legislation has ever
called for a ban on all guns; rather we call for gun CONTROL. We need tighter
gun control in this country and the reasons should be obvious. How many
innocent children have to die before the access to deadly weapons becomes more
difficult? I hope the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado brings to light the
importance of gun control reform. Gun control is not a threat to our freedom,
and it can save thousands of lives.
More people die from gun shots in
the United States than any other country in the world, we also have more gun-related
crimes, over all, than any other country in the world. According to the
statistics from the FBI, 6,009 people were murdered with handguns in America in
2010, which was 67.5% of all murders in the country that year. There were 8,775
total firearm crimes reported in the U.S. in 2010. The highest rates of gun
crimes in the Unites States come primarily from states where gun laws are most
lenient. South Carolina and Tennessee dominate the board in their rate of gun
crimes per capita.
Our constitutional rights are very
much valid and important, but no right is absolute, without exception or
consideration for particular circumstances. Even the sacred right to freedom of
speech is limited in that you cannot knowingly spread false information (although
no one is telling that to Fox News), you cannot call in a fake bomb threat and
insight terror, and you cannot threaten someone’s life or purposefully insight
violent actions. The second amendment right to gun ownership is equally as
relative.
When the Second Amendment was
ratified, the founding fathers had very little or no understanding of mental
health and stability. Medicine and medical knowledge was still very primitive at
the time and psychology was not a known practice or science until late into the
19th century. So the founding fathers never gave a thought to those
who were mentally unstable and should not own guns, nor to young boys with guns
who were treated like men from a very early age. Guns at the time were also far
less dangerous than they are today, their guns shot one weak bullet at a time
and it took a long time to reload. There were no weapons of mass destruction,
no bombs, no silencers, and no automatic rifles, and there was no way for the
first congress to anticipate the future of weapons technology.
Children who are not even old enough
to vote or drive have access to deadly weapons. If a nine year old were allowed
behind the wheel of a car, even with an adult, it would be a crime and the
parent would be charged for negligence and child endangerment, at least. Yet I
have seen and heard of children as young as four and five who are taken to
shooting ranges and taught to shoot. This practice, even with older children,
desensitizes them of the dangers of guns. Children’s brains are NOT developed
enough to handle the dangers and responsibilities of handling a gun. They are
not mature enough to comprehend the severity of the potential consequences. The
human frontal lobe, which is the home of consequential thinking, rationalizing,
and decision making, is not fully developed until the age of about twenty-five.
Children are also not physically coordinated enough to safely handle a gun,
which is why we also don’t let young children play with sharp things, boiling
water, and fire!
I am an advocate for the
restriction of guns from everyone under the age of twenty-one. I believe that if
you pass a written safety test you should be able to acquire a firearm learner’s
license when you’re eighteen. With the
learner’s license you may go to approved shooting ranges, be issued a gun, and
practice shooting targets under strict supervision. Once you turn twenty-one
you should then be able to have a psychiatric evaluation, a written safety
test, and a shooting range test. If you pass the tests, you can get a license
to buy and own certain hand guns and rifles for self-defense. We are required
to be tested in multiple ways to get a license to drive; it is only logical
that it should be at least as difficult to attain a license to own a deadly
weapon. Cars are also registered, and no one questions it, and it is far more
important that guns be registered so that crimes are easily traced back to the
offender. It should also be a law that all firearms must be locked away
securely and unloaded when not in use.
Assault weapons and automatics should be
strictly prohibited. I am viciously against hunting, but even if you are
pro-hunting there is no reason for anyone to have automatic assault weapons.
Automatic weapons are meant to kill people in an attack. They are not used in
hunting, are impractical for self-defense, and no civilian has any business
with such dangerous weapons. In an ideal world such weapons would not even
exist, but as long as they do they must be kept from those unqualified to use
them.
For those that would argue that
they fear of a massive military uprising against the American people, you are
exactly the type of paranoid nut that I do not want handling guns. The fact is
that most of the people in our military would not turn on the American people
(their own people) even if they were ordered to. Also, if the far-fetched,
unlikely scenario occurred wherein the government and military utterly,
blatantly, and violently turned on us and made this country a military state at
gunpoint, we are not going to be saved by a crowd of civilians with a few assault
weapons. The fact is that the American people have already been taken over, but
it has been done in subtler ways, through economic disparities and corporate
control of our government.
The reason that our weak gun
control laws go utterly unchallenged is that the NRA, weapons manufacturers, and rich Christian
institutions have strict monetary ties with the political “right”. The NRA
supplies the right-wing with a mountain of campaign contributions and, in
return, the politicians vote for and pass legislation that “protects the second
amendment”, and keeps gun restrictions weak. The NRA and the GOP also fool the
general public by asserting that the Democrats and liberals want to “take away
your guns”, and ban guns entirely. They also feed into baseless conspiracy
theories about “socialist” military take overs. The second amendment is a
Republican talking point used to distract the masses and gain followers who
don’t understand that the right-wing’s true agenda is to take over the people
by sucking our way of life dry and turning us into ignorant, desperate subjects
and sheep.
Twitter @ladyrhiannon824
Read my blog at The Daily Kos at http://www.dailykos.com/blog/ladyrhiannon824
Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ladyrhiannon824
Facebook - www.facebook.com/LadyRhiannon824
Read my blog at www.ladyrhiannon824.blogspot.com
Google+ at Rhiannon Avaneen
www.ladyrhiannon824.tumblr.com
www.ladyrhiannon824.deviantart.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-
