Pro-Gun / Anti-Gun: We are all on the same side!

I recently participated in a public hearing at the Massachusetts State House in regards to some proposed new gun laws. There were pro-gun people and anti-gun people there to testify before the Joint Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety. The anti-gun protesters that came were mostly people who lost family to gun violence. They want to basically ban guns. They believe that if guns were banned before the time their family member was murdered, that the incident would not have happened. So they are trying to prevent the same thing from happening to other families. Those same anti-gun people look at us pro-gun people as if we are the very evil that provided the means for their loved one(s) to be taken from them. But we pro-gun citizens HATE the same MURDERERS that the anti-gun citizens HATE; and in that way we are ALL on the same side. We ALL want to take the advantage AWAY from the MURDERERS. But pro-gun people see the means to that end on a different path than the anti-gun people do.

We pro-gunners believe that carrying a firearm may help us prevent becoming a murdered family member ourselves. We believe that carrying a firearm may help prevent one of OUR loved ones from being taken away from us. We don't want to have to cower under a table when a murderer starts shooting, we want to fight back! We don’t want to be victims like those anti-gun folks that came to the Massachusetts State House that day to tell their tragic stories. We believe that if we were there when the POS murderer started shooting, we might have been able to prevent the lost family member of these same anti-gun mourners from being taken from them in the first place.

Banning and restricting certain firearms will be just as ineffective as our laws that ban or restrict certain drugs in this county. The murderers can always get their guns from the same illegal means that druggies get their drugs....from illegal unlicensed dealers. We pro-gun citizens believe that gun bans and restrictions only disarm the lawful citizen willing to counter the EVIL gun toting murderers roaming the streets because these murderers obtain their guns through illegal means where bans and restrictions do not apply. Pro-gun people DO NOT want guns in the hands of thugs and murderers, but restrictions on what firearms can be bought legally by law abiding permit holders prevent us from out-gunning the murderers we want to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our fellow citizens from. We pro-gun citizens believe that bans and restrictions only make it harder for law abiding citizen to be equipped well enough to counter an evil shooter.

Legal gun owners in our populous make it more likely there will be someone to STOP a murderer BEFORE he kills. Trustworthy, lawful people who legally obtain a firearm can STOP a murderer in his tracks to protect themselves and others around them as soon as the murderer shows his gun. Conversely, police respond to a shooting AFTER it happens and arrest the evil doer only AFTER he has killed everyone he set out to kill.

So I say to all the mourning anti-gun citizens out there: We are on the same side! We are not your enemy. We are willing to carry a gun to protect us ALL even if you do not want to carry a gun yourself. Do not fight us, help us be better equipped so we can fight the murderers.