Schools, Guns, America, and Where I Stand
I believe that little is being discussed about social health. A build up of social anxiety released in a destructive, vengeful fashion in order to effect the world in the same negative way that they have been, and possibly to leave a legacy for/teach a lesson to society that the wrongs committed against the perpetrator will not go unpunished. These wrongs can be both real and imagined/misinterpreted. American society’s ability to provide relief for the angst is limited so long as talking about these problems is not seen as a priority.
I am a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment. I believe in the right to bear arms to protect oneself from those who seek to do you harm, including the government. No, I am not deluded into believing that even an armed citizenry can stand toe-to-toe with a conventional modern standing army, but if our and other modern military occupations are any indicator, it’s that an armed citizenry can effectively resist an occupying force in a meaningful way that has real political consequences. In that sense, the 2nd Amendment is a valuable political tool given to the American people, and should not be viewed as trivial or archaic.
With that in mind, I also believe that there are certain limitations of those rights that have to be established and enforced so that the rule of law and social order can be maintained. There was once a time when military hardware readily landed into the hands of criminals and sociopaths, and it brought us Gangland Chicago, Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger, and other infamous characters. The lessons from that era of an arms race between crime and law and order made it clear that there are limitations on the rights of how the general public may be armed, lest we descend into lawlessness. Now the question remains: where do we draw that line?
I don’t have a clear answer. Fully automatics have proven too destructive for civilized society to handle. You can limit magazine sizes, but 3D printing is going to make that difficult to enforce. In my mind, fixed magazines may be a better answer, but there are so many weapons already available that I don’t think it will help. You could go full authoritarian and repeal the 2nd amendment, but disarming the citizenry is going to be an enforcement nightmare.
I’m told that these are by far the safest time in human history. I’m told that you’re more likely to be shot by a police officer than a crazed gunman or a desperate criminal. People want to use gun suicide statistics to convince me to be afraid of guns, but I refuse to be afraid of myself. I’m told statistically speaking, the deadliest things you own are automobiles, household poisons, and cheeseburgers, but guns are scary because they go “bang.”
I am a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment. I believe in the right to bear arms to protect oneself from those who seek to do you harm, including the government. No, I am not deluded into believing that even an armed citizenry can stand toe-to-toe with a conventional modern standing army, but if our and other modern military occupations are any indicator, it’s that an armed citizenry can effectively resist an occupying force in a meaningful way that has real political consequences. In that sense, the 2nd Amendment is a valuable political tool given to the American people, and should not be viewed as trivial or archaic.
With that in mind, I also believe that there are certain limitations of those rights that have to be established and enforced so that the rule of law and social order can be maintained. There was once a time when military hardware readily landed into the hands of criminals and sociopaths, and it brought us Gangland Chicago, Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger, and other infamous characters. The lessons from that era of an arms race between crime and law and order made it clear that there are limitations on the rights of how the general public may be armed, lest we descend into lawlessness. Now the question remains: where do we draw that line?
I don’t have a clear answer. Fully automatics have proven too destructive for civilized society to handle. You can limit magazine sizes, but 3D printing is going to make that difficult to enforce. In my mind, fixed magazines may be a better answer, but there are so many weapons already available that I don’t think it will help. You could go full authoritarian and repeal the 2nd amendment, but disarming the citizenry is going to be an enforcement nightmare.
I’m told that these are by far the safest time in human history. I’m told that you’re more likely to be shot by a police officer than a crazed gunman or a desperate criminal. People want to use gun suicide statistics to convince me to be afraid of guns, but I refuse to be afraid of myself. I’m told statistically speaking, the deadliest things you own are automobiles, household poisons, and cheeseburgers, but guns are scary because they go “bang.”