I've been watching the news and it's full of the latest school attack in Florida. I'm just sick of it. I've had all the moments of silence and 'thoughts and prayers' I can stomach. I've had enough conspiracy theories, finger pointing and ridiculous arguments to last the rest of my days.
Allegedly intelligent people refuse to accept that something is most certainly wrong with our civilian weaponry status quo and instead, spend hours at the keyboard attacking the victims, screaming injustice and pretending at patriotism. Thousands of social media warriors invoke their piety and proudly expound on what they would surely have done had they been there with their trusty sidearm. They stand ready and eager to kill anyone who they perceive as a threat. That eagerness says something in itself if anyone cared to read between the lines...but that's another post.
So lets just clear the air a little before I go much further. The fact is...I don't hate guns. I don't hate people who own guns. I don't want your guns taken away. I don't care how many you have. If you know me at all then you already know that.
What I do hate is turning on the news and seeing yet another attack. I hate that nobody wants to do anything. I hate the talking heads and politicians that embarrass themselves pandering to the money. I hate the liars and lunacy-peddlers that preach conspiracy. I hate that so many people work so hard to discredit and debase the witnesses and victims rather than put one tiny bit of energy into anything remotely constructive. I hate that my generation has failed yet again and more of our sons and daughters are dead because of it.
Something is terribly, horrendously wrong and if you can't see it, you are simply not qualified to carry or own a firearm. Period.
If you think the answer to too many gun deaths is more guns, we're not even in the same universe. If you believe every living soul should be armed, we're already speaking a different language. If you think this isn't about money then you're not paying attention. If you believe that nothing can be done to at least slow the death rate, please scroll off to InfoWars where your real friends are and save yourself the trouble of insulting me. Don't bother with the same old tropes about banning cars or knives or box cutters or fertilizer or anything else either. We're talking about weapons designed and built to be weapons. Focus.
Don't waste my time telling me if only everybody was armed, this would never happen. I call bullshit just like the kids from Douglas High School did. Nobody, least of all me; who has never faced a violent crisis knows what might happen in the adrenaline rush of the moment. Lethal force is a terrible responsibility. In the confusion, fear, noise and overload of an attack or even a perceived attack...how many terrified, minimally trained 'good guys with guns' firing in anger for the first time in their lives; in close quarters hallways and rooms full of equally terrified people do you see as being beneficial? What could possibly go wrong?
Besides the likelihood of making bad worse, all that handy firepower floating around seems pretty likely to end up getting used for other purposes besides self-defense. Just ask the Uber Eats driver that recently killed his customer in an argument over basically nothing. Or ask yourself where all the bad guys you say so easily acquire guns actually get them. How many are stolen from the well-stocked good guys? For that matter...how many get flat-out sold by the good guys to the first taker with cash? Just a thought...
Also save the video argument. Don't tell me that we should ban GTA or first-person-shooters or violent movies and TV before we talk about guns. My kids play video games all the time. They don't seem to be building arsenals. I've watched both 'John Wick' movies. I have no desire to run out and shoot up nightclubs after doing so. I've seen 'The Hobbit' too but it didn't make me suddenly believe in elves. My sons and I know the difference between fantasy and reality. You should too.
So moving along. We should talk about mental health? Ok...who's doing the talking? Who gets to say who's in trouble and to what degree? The government? The same ones who are busy scheming to take away your guns and covering up UFOs? Who wants to be the first to put their medical records in a database that every gun shop, random state bureaucrat and your employer can access? Sign me up for that. Not.
The number of people with mental issues of some sort or another is probably unknowable anyway. Think of how many webcrawlers out there believe they need to stockpile weapons and ammo to defend against tyranny and you'll start to see the trend. One man's mental case is another man's patriot you know. These are the fully rational people that love and respect the military and law enforcement but feel the need to have the ability to kill a lot of them should it come to that. The idea that one guy in a bunker can hold off the police or that a bunch of weekend warriors scampering around in the woods could outfox the military for more than 10 minutes is pretty bizarre by itself. It speaks volumes about how much we probably do in fact need to take a hard look at who's stable enough to own firearms and who isn't.
The question then is where do we go from here? I don't have the answers you'll like. I have some suggestions...but first we have to start acting like the adults in the room. If everything begins with the premise that the end game is to confiscate your armory and dump you in a FEMA camp under WalMart...then you have nothing more to say that can be helpful. Watch the young people and learn.
Anyway let's just start...since vehicles as weapons comes up all the time when the socially strident start talking about guns, let's look at it from that angle. You know the drill. "When are we going to ban cars because more people die in cars that with guns?" Never heard that one before.
To refresh...to own and operate a car on the road you have to jump through some hoops. Nobody gives it much thought...it's just the way it is. It doesn't stop very many people from having the privilege of using public highways but it does set a minimum standard and provides a system of regulation and record keeping that seems to work out fairly well. So take a peek at what's required for something as common as driving that...by the way...is not even remotely protected by a Constitutional Amendment. Not even mentioned yet for most people, it typically does not keep them from owning or operating a vehicle.
For starters...you have to be of a certain age. Then you have to get a state-issued permit that becomes your ID. That allows you to practice driving while under supervision. Most states require some minimal training before you take a test to show a certain amount of competence before they turn you loose on the motoring public. Insurance is required in case something unexpected and unfortunate occurs and you must also register the vehicle you're driving or be able to prove who owns it so law enforcement knows it isn't stolen should that come up in conversation. Are you seeing how this looks?
To operate larger vehicles or motorcycles takes more training, testing and an endorsement on your license. The laws become more stringent the more responsibility you have. Hazardous material haulers have more regulation than pizza delivery drivers. Taxis and buses are different again. Nobody questions this much. Nobody worries the deep state will confiscate their big-stack coal-roller just because it's registered and insured.
Does everyone on the road have a current license and keep their insurance paid up? Of course not. I got rear-ended by an unlicensed, uninsured driver once but that's a rarity and the system worked to get me and the car fixed and hold the driver accountable. Yes, a percentage of the population will always scofflaw until they get caught but the argument that since 'criminals will always find a way' so it's pointless to regulate at all goes out the window every time you walk into a DMV.
So why is such a mechanism which almost everyone routinely deals with on a regular basis so absolutely unacceptable to the Ted Nugent fan club at the NRA? Let me venture a guess...because EVERY SINGLE option proposed is instantly elevated to a Constitutional crisis and an existential threat. The reasonable voices of the vast majority of gun owners gets drowned out in the screaming. Everyone is shouting but nobody's listening.
The thing is, there's much we can do. Things we already do. Things that really don't interfere too much with doing what we want yet provide some structure and a basic frame of reference and regulation. Is it foolproof? Nope...the kid that smashed my LTD proves it. But would I like to be on the road knowing that because we couldn't prevent ALL unlicensed driving, then nobody needs a license? Would you put your kids out there knowing that nobody was insured or even superficially trained? It's bad enough as it is.
Oh and that guy driving the gasoline truck? Somebody drove one once with a suspended license and we couldn't stop him so from now on, we'll just forgo the Hazmat endorsement and roll the dice. Bad people will always find a way anyhow so what's the point? See how that sounds?
The idea that we can't do anything because we can't do everything is ludicrous. It's lazy. It says we are helpless and should just accept the killing. It says that corporate profits and our personal desires outweigh everything. That having the right to own as many guns as possible is worth every one of the lives lost.
I don't buy it. And neither do the kids in Florida. And neither should you.
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