I feel that I need to comment about guns since it will be an upcoming big issue because of the Colorado movie theater shooting that happened on July 20th. The debate about gun and gun laws is a never ending circle in this country, whether it is citing the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, or blaming guns for the never ending violence that happens, these arguments are leading to a dead end. The questions is: why do people feel the need to own guns?
This question has been in my mind for a long time. I know the easy answer to this is " for protection", yet how many people need to own a gun for protection ? My experience has been that people either own a gun for hunting or just to own a gun. This "just to own a gun" attitude has become the majority, not the minority in this country. Gun laws in this country seem to resemble this attitude with laws such as "Conceal and Carry", which allows people to carry a gun (in a holster) on the street, but not allow to carry guns into stores, zoos, parks, etc...
So why make this into law? What is the point of this? To feel safe walking down the street? To defend yourself in case you meet dangerous people? Would a gun make you safe? If your answers are yes to these questions then consider how guns don't make you safe. The Conceal and Carry law allows you to carry a gun, but you have to place the gun in a holster and show that you have a weapon. This leaves you at a disadvantage because people can see that you have a gun and if someone wanted to rob you or harm you then they would want to take that advantage away or pull a gun of their own on you in which would probably be concealed. So in effect they see yours, but you don't see theirs. A gun can put fear into potential robbers, but then not all people are afraid of guns.
If people can come to this realization then why still the fixation about guns? This is a complicated question, but my opinion is that guns make people feel like they have power and a sense that with guns a "honor system" exists. People believe that weapons need to be used nobly and when someone doesn't then "they are cowards". If cowards only use weapons for bad purposes then the people who use guns for noble purposes or people who own a gun, but never harmed anyone are noble or good. There are many laws mankind has made with regards to guns, but this is the simple rational humans have with regards to weapons. The "good" people have weapons, but use them for "good " reasons, yet the "good" people are not always clearly defined.
The rational needs to be that guns are guns, they are devices that were created to kill and nothing else. Guns are weapons of mass destruction and need to be treated as such. The debate will go on to which guns are "legal" and "illegal" but it doesn't matter because under any circumstance guns can kill many people, but what is the part that scares people the most? The part that guns are easy to use and require no skill. Anyone can pick up a gun and use it, no training is necessary. The debate over guns should not be pro-gun vs anti-gun, but should be " why do ordinary citizens need guns?" and if that answer is yes then " how can we deal with the consequences?"
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