Well, I bet everyone has been waiting restlessly for me to weigh in on some of the crazy stuff that's going on in our world lately. Well, to be honest, I've been a little bit distracted (plus I really didn't want to think about it much) but I feel like it's time we discussed it a little bit.
It has now been almost 2 months since the Newtown incident, a lot longer then that since the Benghazi incident, etc., etc. But still the debates go on and burn ever brighter. I'm afraid to even think of the extent that our government is involved in these things that are happening. I don't even want to think about what this current administration is capable of. Like I said in my previous post, I have to remember the Serenity Prayer and trust God to let me know what I need to do something about and what i need to trust Him with.
But one thing that I've been watching carefully and I'm able to get a lot of information on is this gun control situation, since my husband is an avid gun owner & sportsman. His motto is the famous "you can have my guns when you pry them out of my cold dead hands". The thing is, I understand this but I want to bring a new perspective to the average person, even if they don't like guns or can't even see a good reason for anyone to own them and help them understand why they should support our 2nd amendment and the rights of others to have them.
First of all, I grew up in Chicago - more exact - Cicero. Violence has been a part of my life for many years. It's just now getting down here to the extent we grew up with in the 60s and 70s. My father was southern so he had hunting guns. He never demonstrated them to me or showed me how to use them but I saw the evidence of what they could do. He never owned a hand gun. I remember one time we had to go downtown to St. Luke's Hospital to visit someone during the time of the riots that were going on & he put a machete under his seat. He never associated guns with self defense, just hunting. Once again, there was no discussion about it, he just did it.
Not long after that my Uncle Charlie who lived in Sikeston, MO was shot & killed by his own son because he grounded him. It was very sad. But Charles Jr. used a shot gun. He only shot him one time, that's all it took. Because he was only 13 years old, do you know what his sentence was? He had to leave the state of Missouri and never come back. That's the way to deal with it; make is someone else' problem. Nice.
Anyway, fast forward many years to 1977, August 5th to be exact. I had a baby boy named Eric who was 11 months old and a newborn named Adam who wasn't even 2 weeks old yet. My sister was shot and killed with a 357 magnum in her home in Berwyn during an argument with her husband. They had both been drinking and Howie had served 3 terms in Viet Nam and to say he had PTSD would be like saying Hitler didn't like Jews. You know what I mean? Of course, we didn't know it had a name back then, we just knew something was off about the guy. He was perfectly fine until he started drinking. Mental problems.
For many years I was totally against hand guns. I could never see any reason that people should own them. There wasn't anything good about them. You didn't need them to hunt and bad things would happen if you had one. Did I mention that between the time that my sister was shot and the time that my brother-in-law was arrested, my ex-husband sat by the door with a handgun because I was terrified that he would come there and kill me. Scary stuff. But it just demonstrates my hypocrisy. It's a double edged sword. It's kind of like cars. Millions of people every day are killed in auto related injuries but the only way to eradicate that altogether is to go back to horses and buggies. Are you ready for that? I'm sure not.
So it is with guns. They are a necessary evil as long as there is evil in the world. But let me explain to you about the debate over automatic weapons, ok? This is how it actually goes. It doesn't really have anything to do with the aforementioned situations.
When the original 2nd Amendment was framed by our Forefathers, it really didn't have anything to do with the traditional use of guns that we associate with them because in our society things are different. Back in those days, they were a necessary tool. Everyone had them because they were necessary for food (Kroger wasn't around yet), and in most of the country they were also necessary for self defense. There were still a great many people who lived in places where they were in danger of imminent attack.
The reason they added it was to protect citizens against a government that decided to overstep their authority, declare martial law and subjugate the citizens. Remember the words "For the People, By the People and Of the People"? It's not about them. But back in those days even the Army had the same basic weapons, a musket. Maybe with a bayonet attached but basically the same thing everyone else had. Some had cannon but not that many and those were not generally used for mobile forces. They were too cumbersome.
Ok once again we will use our time machine to fast forward. No matter what weapons we own we cannot even come close to the type of fire power that our government has now. Think about it, nuclear warheads, rocket launchers, heat seeking missiles, etc. How do we possibly compete with that? With a single-shot shotgun or rifle? Not only is that inefficient, it's stupid. You might as well throw rocks or run at them with sticks.
There is no such thing as an "assault weapon". That's just a term they came up with for a military style rifle. Any time you shoot someone, regardless of the type of gun you use, it's an assault weapon. You just assaulted them. Let's get over that term!
Let's put on our logic caps for a moment, shall we. Put aside our emotions & forget our feelings. If no one but the military has any of those types of weapons, we are defenseless against them. We would be at their mercy. That is their motive to take them away from us. They have all the power then.
Hopefully, it would never come down to that but we should be ever on our guard because you never know. The world is an evil place and things are unstable at best. Even if you don't think you want to participate in being prepared for such an occasion, at least you should support those who do & are vigilant about protecting those rights. That will give you peace of mind to be able to live life without worrying about it.
And then we get to the other stuff - if there are people around you in public, in restaurants, public transportation, anywhere there are crowds, just knowing that there might be someone in the crowd that may be armed might make a potential gunman think twice before he decides to open fire on innocent people. If he knows without a doubt that no one is, he won't hesitate. Police can't be everywhere, somewhere a long the line we have to take responsibility for our own safety. Laws won't do it.
We are so far removed from those people that lived only 200 years ago. We don't have to think about any of the things that they were concerned about. We just always trust that our laws and our "officials" will enact laws and take care of us and we can just breeze through life without a care. Occasionally something comes on the news that scares and shocks us, invades our malaise but the next day life is right back to what it was. Evil people count on our complacency and lack of interest. Don't wait until it encroaches on your life and become that victim we see on TV. Think about it. Pray about it. And do the right thing. Get involved. WE ARE THE PEOPLE. THIS IS OUR COUNTRY! And like Clint said: "THEY WORK FOR US"!
Just sayin....
