This is about politics/guns not sports.
I hate talking about politics because I usually end up in a bad mood. It's not the government that makes me angry...it's the apathy, the ignorance of my family, my friends, my co-workers, and myself. The recent gun control debate is one that tears at me every single time it comes up.
The last time I shot a rifle was 5 years ago at a range in North Carolina. I wouldn't consider myself a gun enthusiast, but I have no issue with them. I have issues with the senseless violence, and I recognize guns play a huge role...but I'm not innocent, few of us are.
America has a gun culture...but it's not the video games fault, not entirely the fault of people committing acts of violence daily, and certainly not the fault of proponents of the 2nd amendment.
Over 200 years ago much of his country was relegated to the eastern Atlantic coastline. Through the gun we established this land, through bondage we established part of our currency, by war we expanded our borders and protected our interest abroad. This is where a gun culture begins.
The gun culture in America doesn't trace it's roots to Sandy Brook...there was a gun culture in the Battle of Westport, a gun culture during Quantrill's raid, a gun culture when Missourians expelled Mormon's from the state, a gun culture that gave us the property that we consider ours.
The questions shouldn't focus on the next idiot with the gun and how to protect ourselves from them. The questions are far more tougher than that...because the answer resides within ourselves.
The United States has a military budget nearly 4 times greater than Russia (2nd in defense spending), and nearly 8 times greater than China (3rd in defense spending). Statistics show America is one of the more violent civilized countries...but how can we not be?
Someone's paying the price in blood somewhere...1000 years from now history won't remember much...but they will remember this military. How does the greatest military machine happen...what acts had to transpire to establish that dominance?
That's the issue with gun control...how do you mass produce death and not have any blood on your hands? How do you produce weapons but not have them? This is the crux of the issue with gun control.
We had a Federal Weapons ban...not much is different from New York's recent one, or Obama's. All 3 proposed cosmetic changes...to make it look less "scary". Functionally nothing changes...the weapons just shoot the same.
The rest of it was to make people feel better...but the weapons will still be made, function the same, and be added to the millions in circulation. No punishment is greater than the punishment for murder...throwing in a few gun violations shouldn't make you feel safer.
We have to press for real solutions, that will require us to look at the real problems. It's not use, it's production. It's our desire to secure interest, to grow. You can't live by the sword without dying from it a little. You can't ask people to go to war, and not want a warrior to return.
The gun issue is like every other issue...the truth hurts. The truth is how many really want to be free? Freedom isn't safety and security...freedom is far more tougher and complex. It's a freedom that people seem to easy to relinquish.
I'm no gun enthusiast...but I am a freedom enthusiast. I'm a man that believes in this country, and not it's government. I believe in personal freedom, expression, liberty, defense...that's the essence of this country...that I can do it my way. I'll always stand up for that, and do it my way.
