A responsible state

In prisons, the guards inside don’t have guns. Yet, the response of the NRA to the Sandy Hook massacre is to turn our teachers into armed guards. For a country that already doesn’t fund its schools well, and local police forces are having to cut staff to stay in budget, we’re not in a position to pay to secure every last public place just in case someone goes wacko and starts shooting up the place.

As to the wackos- we pretty much shut down all our state sponsored mental institutions under Reagan and began our problem with homelessness. It seems to be beyond our grasp that some people are not capable of functioning normally within society due to challenges in life, but, on the other hand – totally acceptable to pour trillions into places like Iraq and Afghanistan to try to make them “safe for democracy.”

A truly responsible State, would never allow its own veterans to be homeless, while building schools and roads in far away places, and funding public security forces there, while its own citizens are getting murdered by the boatload here.

So, of course, I’m instantly a gun hater, gun banner and have no respect for the Second Amendment. I want to ban guns, or take away your firepower- which protect you just in case, you happen to be watching a movie at midnight and a whack job shows up in full body armor shooting with an assault rifle. Nancy Lanza had a whole arsenal of weaponry “to protect her”- and as the saying goes, those who live by the gun, die by the gun. She was the first, but the only one who wasn’t innocent that died in Connecticut.

We live in a state where you can’t cut hair for money without a license and an exam. Last I heard, a bad haircut never put anyone in the hospital. To sell another persons home, you need a license, to drive a car, to fly a plane, to sell insurance, to practice law, medicine and to be an architect. Whom are we protecting with all these licenses, permits, tests and insurance? We even have F&I insurance for corporate boards so they won’t get sued after they rob their shareholders of their life’s savings.

Yet, to buy something designed to kill people, no license, no test, no insurance. By their nature, guns are an offensive weapon, meant to do harm to someone or something living. But, the argument is, if you take away the good guys guns, only the bad guys will have them. And to me, that’s the last straw. Live by the gun, die by the gun.

I am not afraid of a government of the people, by the people, that expects me not to have to deal with the risk of getting shot every time I leave the house. This is not the wild west, and I don’t want to live there. If I wanted to live somewhere where I run risks of that- I can go to Afghanistan and even there, I’m afraid I might actually be safer. All I’m asking for is well regulated gun ownership, responsible gun ownership. If you want to own a gun, you must pass a real training course, you must certify at least annually, you carry insurance for your gun (or guns) and take full responsibility if they are used in a crime.

As to the “bad guys” who want to have a gun and use it in a crime, or have it out in public without license, insurance and registration (unavailable to those with a felony record), it’s really quite simple- we shoot you on the spot with your own gun and destroy it. What gun loving member of the NRA wouldn’t love that? Because, they are all the good guys- who are going to save us from shooters like the one in Aurora.

And while I fully understand posse comitatus and don’t want the military to deploy here, I ask is it much different if we did put armed guards all over? I’d rather have our soldiers here than in Afghanistan, but, then again, why should we need armed guards in our midst. Even prisoners don’t have to live like that.

And one last thing, I’m pretty sure our Congressmen aren’t allowed to pack heat at work, but, I bet budget debates would be settled a lot quicker if they were. It’s time we stopped dancing around this issue and take some responsibility for our death rate from guns in this country. We banned jarts didn’t we?

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