Steven,
I don't make any pretension that I am not emotional about this issue. I am sick and tired of the slaughter that is occurring every day in this country with guns. I am emotional about it and its too bad that the only people who seem emotional about guns are the people who own them.
As regards my point about NYC, this is not some small place. It has 7M people. Getting a gun license is very difficult and getting a "carry" permit is virtually impossible. Despite what you might believe the violent crime rate hasn't gone down in NYC because millions of people are carrying around illegal guns they bought in NJ. Its gone down for the reasons I cited.
As for store owners being able to obtain weapons to defend themselves, I don't have any problem with that. I do have a problem with people carrying guns around on their person in the belief that this is the way society should work. In NYC they have shown that it doesn't have to be this way.
I also have a much bigger problem with people being able to obtain modified assault rifles. What is the purpose for anyone to own these? You asked me about gun shows and I can tell you that I have been to shows, seen the automatic pistols that have been modified to require one pull per bullet and been told how to modify them if I wanted to. It is not illegal to give that information, it is also available on the 'net.
If you look at the FBI crime statistics you will see that last year there were less than 2,000 murders committed by strangers against innocent people. All of the rest were basically either drug, gang, domestic dispute or between parties that were otherwise acquainted. Almost 23,000 were people who were killed by someone they had met before.
I grew up around rifles and hunting and never had a problem with either. But, I also spent a year in Vietnam and saw first hand what guns can do. I don't feel bad about having served or anything I did there. However, I've realized that having a rifle around because I might go hunting again some day or that I might have to defend myself with it(a silly fantasy, in general for a home owner), just wasn't worth the risk that it might get stolen or that somehow my kid or someone else's kid could somehow get a hold of it. Locking guns up so that no one, but, you can get them(for sure no one can get them) means that they are not quickly available to repel those pod people when they come to get you. It's a fantasy...
Lastly, you're right I shouldn't brand everyone as a "gun nut" and apologize. At the same time, if you're honest you'll admit there are alot of "gun nuts" and they are very scary. |
