OK so I'm guessing that if your friend complains that they are overweight your first thought isn't to treat them to an all-expense paid trip to Baskin Robbins. If your neighbor's house catches fire you don't arrive with a five-gallon gift basket from Exxon Mobil. So please, for the love of God explain to me why the cure for the atrocity of gun carnage in America is ...more guns.
The statistics border on the ridiculous:
The U.S. has 5% of the world's population and 50% (that's 5-0%) of the world's guns.
290 million guns loose in the U.S., that's a gun-to-person ratio of 84% . The next largest country is Yemen at 54%.
31,000 dead each year, 11,000 of which are homicides. That's 30 times higher than France or Australia.
Now we're told that arming teachers is the path to safety in schools.
It's easy to blame Wayne Lapierre and the survivalist crazies at the NRA but they are just a symptom, like diarrhea is a symptom of dysentery. The real problem is the American gun culture and the concomitant fear that grows from it. A substantial portion of your fellow countrymen are, for some reason, afraid of being disarmed. The idea is as impractical as the notion that we can round up all of our illegal aliens and deposit them in their home countries. However, no gun owner is rational about owning guns.
When Barack Obama was elected there was an immediate shortage of ammunition and a brisk business at gun shows where background checks are not required. I agree with the gun lobby in that I imagine the President would like to see a lot fewer guns available in America but, until recently he had never said so. The idea that "the black liberal is coming for your guns" is a ghost story that gun-crazies tell to their kids. Even without the NRA this sickness about the necessity to be armed has pervaded our culture and poisoned our land.
Somehow, this perversion can be traced to a deep, visceral distrust of the federal government. Young men who have served in the military, saluted the flag, profess to be patriots, accepted GI benefits, pay taxes and vote; still view the fed as some evil destroyer of their personal liberty. They gladly accept government farm subsidies as their right but complain when a Spanish property owner gets emergency room care. They have created a disconnect between the Country and its elected and appointed leaders. They see Washington as infested with liberals who coddle minorities, kiss the asses of America's enemies and dream up new ways to strip "real Americans" of their rights.
The EPA tells these men that they can't pollute the groundwater. The Army Corp of Engineers tells them that they can't drain a swamp or dam a stream. The IRS demands its pound of flesh whether they have the money or not. The Dept of Agriculture won't let them grow certain crops and the Dept of the Interior lets Indians build casinos all over the country. Whites will soon be a minority and all the signs in Wal Mart are in Spanish. "Well, by God there's one thing those commie, ACLU-loving, Christmas-hating atheists in Washington can't have and that's my gun."
Maybe I'm wrong but how else can you explain the increase in gun purchases after Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colo, and the Gabby Gifford shooting? What else accounts for the thousands of rounds that many Americans store in their basement? Why the run on high-capacity magazines after the recent election? Gun love is a sickness and one peculiar to America. Hell, I'm the biggest know-it-all in the East and I haven't a clue as to what to do about this. In my lifetime I've seen Israelis and Egyptians work out a treaty that's lasted 34 years; I've seen Protestants and Catholics disarm in Northern Ireland; I've even seen Bears fans marry Packer fans. Maybe we can change but, whatever the answer is, I know it isn't more guns.
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