When it comes to gun control, it's easy for most people who have little or no “gun education” to be on the side of the anti-gun people who say that guns are bad. Why? Well, people that have little or no experience with firearms only know what they see in the media or read in the newspapers/internet about guns being used for violent acts. People see guns on TV shows and in movies where the only people with guns are cops and criminals. There are never any news reports or movies about any of the 100 million law abiding people who carry a gun every day because its not entertaining TV. This kind of one sided exposure shows guns as being evil devises of death and leaves the impression that most people that have guns are going to do bad things. But its not fair to label the guns as evil and gun owners as bad people. If all you know about guns and gun owners is from news and pop culture, you don't really know anything about guns. MOST people that own guns are very responsible people who's firearms are NEVER used irresponsibly or for evil. It's important to understand this. Laws should keep guns from evil doers, not from the law abiding citizens. The problem is that most anti-gun laws, despite any good intentions, have absolutely NO impact on ILLEGAL guns and only serve to INFRINGE on LEGAL ownership. Then, when it is obvious that the laws have had no effect, anti-gun lobbyists and legislators conclude that the current laws are not enough and more laws must be needed to STOP gun violence. What they FAIL to recognize is that there seemingly obvious answer only makes matter worse!
Let me introduce myself as a typical gun owner: I am a responsible gun owner. I have a license to own and carry a gun on my person. I am not a criminal. I don't kill people. I don't use my guns to rob or intimidate people. I keep my guns either in my direct control or in a quality gun safe inaccessible to unauthorized people.
Criminals that have guns probably don't have a gun license. To get a gun license (in my state) you have to have a background check done by the police department. Any criminal activity in the past disqualifies you from obtaining a gun license. For the most part, criminals use guns that they steal or they buy guns on the black market that someone else stole. It is obviously illegal to steal a gun or buy a stolen gun. But criminals don't care because they are criminals.
So, if criminals steal or buy their guns on the black market, how are anti-gun laws going to keep criminals from getting guns? THEY ARE NOT! Gun laws only apply to the LAWFUL. Criminals don't care if the government says that they are not supposed to have a specific weapon, they are going to get one anyway. Criminals don't care about laws because they are criminals....remember?
So, anti-gun laws only prevent lawful citizens from owning guns to protect themselves. What good is that? Lawful citizens are the victims of the criminals that have the guns that everyone else is not supposed to have. Why should the criminals be armed and everyone else be left defenseless? What...you think the cops are going to protect you? How? Cops can't protect every single individual person. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times (or more) cops respond to a past crime. In other words, a crime happens, then someone calls the cops and then the cops go to the crime. So, how are the cops going to protect unarmed citizens from the gun toting criminals if the cops can't get to the scene until AFTER the crime? Doesn't make sense does it?
So why are so many people anti-gun? It's because anti-gun people come in 2 types. The first type is the "gun uneducated". These people can be very smart, but they just don't know about guns...but they think they do. These are the people that think people with guns are bad and the guns must be banned to keep guns away from these bad people. The other type of anti-gun person is just scared of guns. Since they are scared of guns they don't want to have anything to do with them. This also means that they are unwilling to own a gun to protect themselves; so they want the government to protect them somehow. So the government, under the guise of protecting the people, create unconstitutional anti-gun laws.
But, these gun laws are double edged swords. The first edge we already talked about: they prevent lawful citizens from protecting themselves. The other edge is that anti-gun laws put the government in the practice of taking away rights that are protected by the constitution. This is obviously very bad. Free speech is protected by the constitution right? Well if the government can take away the right to bear arms, why shouldn't the government be able to take away the right to free speech? You see were I am going here?
So, anyone that is pro-constitution and its protection of rights, including free speech, NEED to be pro-gun. This means that even people that don't have any interest in guns should be PRO-gun. Being pro-gun does not mean that you have to own a gun; it just means that you don’t believe the government has the authority to infringe on the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens, including (but not limited to) the second amendment.
Being ANTI-gun supports anti-gun laws that do two things:
1. Keep lawful people from protecting themselves and
2. Provide precedent for the government to take away constitutionally protected rights.
That is why being anti-gun is UN-American.
I don't want criminals walking around with loaded weapons, but there always will be regardless of any laws. So I take responsibly for my family protection by carrying a firearm rather than relying on the government to take on the impossible task of providing protection for me. I also want to keep our government out of the habit of ignoring our constitution or changing it in any way that takes away our rights OR makes it harder to exercise our rights. I am pro-constitution, I am pro-freedom, I am pro-American…so I MUST also be pro-gun.
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