Guns Are Flowing Like Water

There are roughly just as many guns in the United States as there are people, hovering around an estimated 310 million.  Considering how simple it is to obtain one... with the hardest question during the process being "cash or credit?", those are some scary statistics.  Despite your reasoning for having a gun, it seems that Americans agree on one thing... stay out of my gun cabinet.  And while the 2nd Amendment protects your 'right to bear arms', it's wildly debated as to what it actually means.  There were huge profits from gun sales when the NRA created the "Obama is coming for your guns" campaign... just another smoke and mirrors game in the face of corporate greed.  Meanwhile, he's not coming for your guns, but something does have to be done.

Personally, I have always been against guns.   I have a fear of just being around them like they will spontaneously go off at any moment.  Oddly, I view it as being weak in having one in that all logic and compromise is out the window.  I feel like the only reason to have one is to start trouble, but it seems like people have them for different purposes... mostly for hunting and protection.  To me, we are well past the era where we have to hunt for food, although I realize that there is overpopulation in some animal species and hunting is used to control... so I guess if you use the meat, it's a different story.  Once I saw Bambi, I knew it wasn't for me... and I have never been hunting in my life, unless you consider the bacon case at the local Walmart to be 'the great outdoors' (although it can get wild in there).  Calling hunting a 'sport' is kind of silly since it's not a fair playing field... I'd like to see how many people would go if the animals were armed.  And don't get me started on tree stands... at the very least, hunting is some form of exercise, but not when your fat ass is perched in a tree just waiting for something to walk by.  Where's the skill in that?

Protection, I would imagine, is the most popular reason for owning a gun.  Granted, things are not the same as they were when the amendment was written in 1791, but with growing violence, I guess people feel safer in having one, but I often wonder who they are protecting themselves against.  There's a large majority that think that it will be the government that they will have to go up against, of which, I have to laugh at that theory.  Not that it hasn't happened... or couldn't happen, but the likelihood of a successful outcome for the people's side against the most powerful government in the world is dismal, to say the least.  And it's ironic that gun-nuts are the one that support the defense budget the most in how they vote.  That "'Merica, fuk yea" attitude they back may very well, in the scenario in their minds, may be the thing that works against them in 'the end'.

Self defense against each other must be the main drive in owning a gun... and I guess that's where I have most of my problem with guns.  Paranoia is never a good thing and people who stockpile guns tend to be just that.  I have been fortunate in my 46 years to never get into an altercation with another person that led to physical violence of any sort and, with my strong opinions and big mouth, I should get that peace prize they are always handing out.  I have never raised my hand to strike someone and never needed to, not that I don't want to give a good bitch slap to so many well-deserved people.  But I think that if you are carrying a gun and you're paranoid about trouble, you're going to find it.  A story popped up in the news today about a retired police officer who shot a man dead in a theater for texting during the previews.  And while that is very irritating, does it warrant having your life ended?  Um, I think the answer is no.  So here's a guy that should know better who gets pushed to a not so high level of anxiety pulling a gun out and ending a person's life.  My argument is that if he didn't have it on him, the dead guy would still be annoying, but not dead, proving that having a gun on you can lead to an undesired outcome.   It seems like people who have/carry guns are looking for reasons to shoot them... it's in the papers every day.  Killings are elevated with the presence of guns.  When any idiot can easily get a gun without any kind of mental health or skills test, even if you have a gun, it's not going to protect you unless you are able to understand the liability of having it and that not using it is probably your best defense.  Nobody wins in a shoot-out, least of all, innocent bystanders.

We are a nation of people that are afraid of our own shadows.  Our overly-hygienic tendencies have made us more susceptible to viruses... the slightest threat of snow throws us into a frenzied trip to the store to compile enough milk, bread and toilet paper to last weeks when we are plowed out in a day or so.  And we have voted to build up an arsenal of defense against the rest of the world that makes us a huge bully... and we can't stop sticking our nose in everyone's business to the point that we are so disliked, causing a catch-22 situation in that we will soon need that stockpile to defend ourselves, when it is ourselves that we need protected against. 

Hollywood has done it's part to make us a paranoid nation with so many end-of-days and apocalyptic doomsday movies.  It gives us a view into what would happen in a disaster and how we'd react and I have to admit, it scares the hell out of me.  It doesn't take much for people to panic and if a sale on slippers on Black Friday at Walmart is any indication of what we are capable of, it's not looking good.  This week in West Virginia, a coal treatment plant leaked chemicals into the nearby river that rendered the drinking water to some 300,000 people useless.  Bottled water had to be trucked in and the National Guard was called in to protect the supply.  This transpired all in a matter of days.  If this were a larger city, or a portion of the country... riots would have broken out.  Water will be the currency in the end of days, especially if we keep mistreating our resources in situations like this and fracking, which is the next ticking time bomb.  Situations like these are a real wake up call.  Evian (the bottled water company), coincidentally spells 'naïve' backwards... which is what we are as a country.

Last week, as against guns as I am, I went looking at handguns.  I went into a local store and was amazed at the selection and how cheap they were.  I felt like a criminal just being in there, like I was dirty and up to no good.  So, I was behind two young Asian guys, one of which was buying the gun and he didn't even speak English, having to have the other one translate for him.  He was in and out in 20 minutes between choosing one, the clerk running his drivers license and ringing it up.  That is a scary situation.  Imagine coming up against this person who you can't reason with in a common language and you're looking down the barrel of his gun... it could only end poorly.  But, with my Dad living with me, I refuse to be a sitting duck if it ever came down to a situation in my home or in the world.  I didn't buy any as of yet because I have a lot of thinking to do about it and coming to grips with the person that I have become (in the sense that I am entertaining the idea of gun ownership).  I'm not particularly proud being a product of my surroundings and I have to sort through my own fears.  I can't tell if I am better off on the side of crazy or able to protect myself against it.  Having one may become a necessary evil sooner or later and I'd like to be smart about doing something that dumb sooner, rather than (too) later.