When Rights Outweigh Responsibilties: My Point of View on Gun Control

I remember standing out in the woods with a friend on a summer's day. The air was still except for the rustling of ponderosa pines above our heads. And then, BANG! The sound of gunfire! We let the pistol cool before re-entering the car. We shot the gun just to hear what it sounded like, and what it felt like to shoot. For me, this was a startling revelation: I realized the deadly force of a firearm, and with possessing one, I had the power over life and death.

A few years passed, and I moved 30 miles south. Things were a little bit more rural, though I still lived in what was called a city (more like a big "small" town). As I drove to an appointment, I watched pedestrians cross the street from an adjacent stadium. In their arms bundled up like precious children? Guns. Lots of guns. It was revolting!

Americans have been given inalienable rights: One of which is to carry firearms. I'm sick to death of the escalating violence, and the de-sensitization of our citizens. Just this morning I awoke to the news wherein yet another person was shot after a heated dispute at a house party. Drive-bys, road rage, and now school shootings fill the headlines almost nightly. But then again, we have the right to carry weapons. Or do we?

As I see it, there is a gradual disintegration of society as a whole; an unraveling of a single thread which will ultimately destroy the garment. That thread is that of benevolence. One-half percent of the population is financially controlling the other 99.5%. We wait for crumbs to fall from their over-filled plates. These people have long since forgotten that there are others in need, and look for more ways to hide their wealth rather than share it.

Unemployment is a major factor which guides societal behavior. It's like a "shit rolls downhill" effect. The big companies tighten the reins on their finances, jobs are lost, and people are thrown into despair. There is a sense of hopelessness; a bleakness which blankets the community at large. This can translate into abhorrent behavior. A feeling of helplessness could drive someone who's psychologically unstable over the edge.

Guns are a ready source of satisfying the need for immediate gratification: A cessation of that which is bothersome. Pull out a gun, and end a fight. Pull out a gun, kill that cheating lover. With the click of a trigger, frustrations disappear. If guns weren't readily available, people who chose to use them as remedies may actually find positive alternatives to violence. But we may never know as buying a gun has become as common place as purchasing groceries. They are in the hands of criminals, and those law-abiding citizens who become criminals via crimes of passion.

Associating gun violence with unemployment is critical. They are closely related as the amount of shootings invariably increase with the lack of employment. Those who teeter on lawlessness can be found packing, and wait for an opportunity to act out on unsuspecting victims (like at house parties and bars where liquor flows like the Nile). And though gun supporters claim that we have the right to bear arms as our Second Amendment right, more often than not, guns are used not for self-defense, but in acts of flash aggression. I often make reference to the bar across the street from my building. About a year ago, there was one incident wherein a bar patron was executed two blocks from the bar over a dispute over a woman. If the shooter didn't have a weapon, the victim might be alive today.

I don't agree with the saying that guns don't kill people, but people kill people. If guns weren't dispensed like candy in a vending machine, we might be able to use the brains God gave us. Reason with each other without violence. Be...

HUMAN.

rainwriter jones