Gun Control or Crappola?
By Timothy Gatto
31 January, 2013
Countercurrents.org
This gun control debate has me scratching my head. I’m not against gun control…but I’m not completely for it either. I know for a fact that if they outlawed all guns tomorrow, criminals would still manage to get their hands on any type of weapon they wanted to possess. Look at what a great job they have done with drugs.
The sad but simple truth is that our government is totally inept at controlling what people can and can’t have. The only way they can possibly get assault rifles off the street (and I’m only talking about NEW assault rifles here) is for them to stop the arms manufacturers from producing them for civilian use. The military should be required to destroy all assault rifles it takes out of service.
There is a deeper question than taking assault rifles away from people that just want to hunt or target shoot or use them for home protection. What many are saying in a roundabout way is that they want them in case the government turns against them. After all, isn’t that what the Second Amendment is all about? There is plenty of precedent of governments turning against its own people. I wouldn’t be the last American to say it couldn’t happen here. The way the government has been behaving as of late, starting wars across the globe and manipulating the media, the last thing I’d like to see is mandatory gun registration.
Assault weapons are a fact of life. Criminals are going to get them the same way they get them now, out of the trunk of an illegal gun dealer’s car. Of course they should run background checks at gun shows. It’s idiotic that they don’t do it now. Some of the arguments made both for gun control and against gun control are imbecilic. Do you know how quickly you can change magazines? It takes about 5 seconds. What’s the difference if someone has a twenty round magazine or a ten round magazine? The best way to make that argument null and void is to prohibit the manufacture of large magazines. That still won’t stop someone hell-bent on destruction from taping two ten round magazines together.
I know that many of my progressive friends think that guns are terrible things. Still, you have to consider that with approximately 350 million Americans in this country, if only 1% of them are crazy (and I’m being cautious here) that’s 350,000 crazy folks running around. Having a rifle of a handgun or a 12 gauge shotgun within arm’s reach is a prudent measure in today’s world, sad to say.
One way to reduce the carnage that’s seems rampant in this country is to stop giving these freaks so much media attention. We don’t need to know every facet of their life, who their friends were and where they went to school. The more attention the media gives them, the more it appeals to other nut-jobs that want to get noticed. Look at the reason Mark David Chapman gave for killing John Lennon. “The District Attorney said Chapman committed the murder as an easy route to fame”. I don’t know John Lennon’s middle name, but I know Chapman’s.
Look, I don’t care for the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre, I don’t particularly like Sen. Diane Feinstein either, and they both are way off the mark. There must be some way to have a reasonable debate on this. Have background checks done on everyone that purchases a gun, anywhere where guns are legally sold. Ban assault weapons? Well it’s a little late for that; there are more than enough to go around. This is the most heavily armed nation on Earth. Don’t let these incidents be the reason we enact ridiculous unenforceable gun laws that the government could use to “selectively” bring their most annoying dissidents to trial. Try writing the networks and telling them that you don’t really give a good goddamn where or how these monsters that kill little children were raised or what their names are. Another good idea is that once they are found guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, they should just be eliminated like a bad disease.
I know…the sanctity of life and all that. Still, kill kids and all bets are off. The more these events are hyped, the more of them you’ll see. You can blame the media for part of that. The media and the morbid curiosity Americans seem to possess, like being fixated on a train wreck.
Tim Gatto is former Chairman of the Liberal Party of America, Tim is a retired Army Sergeant. He currently lives in South Carolina. He is the author of "Complicity to Contempt" and "Kimchee Days" available at Oliver Arts and Open Press. Tim Gatto's new book "Contempt to Outrage" will be available soon from Oliver Arts and Open
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