I Gun “Safety” for Victims of Murder
In all this talk about “safety” by the advocates for gun rights, do any of them ever stop to think about how the murdered victims feel about “gun safety”?
Do you think if we could ask the persons who died from such lethal violence, from being shot in the head or the heart, they would answer “guns make me feel safe” and “guns prevent deaths”?
I’ve got no way of knowing for sure but I’m guessing that just about every murdered victim would agree that guns did not make things safer for them.
It’s a marvelous stroke of luck for the NRA, isn’t it, that they don’t ever need to hear the opinions of all the many GUN-MURDERED DEAD!!!
NRA = “NEVER RESPONSIBLE ASSOCIATION”
II MISC. THOUGHTS
By “gun”, I refer to both hand-held guns and various kinds of rifles, especially those automatic and semi-automatic weapons with large ammunition clips which allow a shooter to fire continuously in order to kill multiple victims before reloading (changing the clip or magazine). Lethal damage can occur from a single shot, of course, but it is the growing number of mass shootings that have grabbed the nation’s attention of late.
I notice that the loudest gun-rights advocates with the National Rifle Association’s “mind-set” often choose to ignore the ease with which a gun can be used to injure or kill another, which I find to be disingenuous at best and irrational at worst. The simplicity and speed with which a gun’s trigger can be squeezed absolutely must be included in any rational analysis of the Epidemic of Violence sweeping across America.
Whether from uncontrolled anger or criminal plotting, any individual with a gun can wound, cripple, or destroy the life of another human being in a matter of seconds. No other tool or weapon is as quick and deadly as the hand-held gun, this merchant of death.
The bullet travels faster than the speed of sound and can be released on its deadly flight by a slight pull of a trigger mechanism that takes so little strength that even a child can manage it. A momentary burst of anger in an immature teenager can lead directly to another teenager’s death.
An armed robber in fear of being apprehended can injure or kill a storekeeper, bystander, or police officer in a few seconds. A disturbed individual suffering from delusional fantasies can open fire in a movie theater, school, church or other crowded venue and stands a good chance of killing a dozen victims or more.
Gang members battling over the control of turf may slaughter one another in conscienceless manner, along with any unlucky persons who get caught in the cross-fire. So-called “stray bullets” from gunfire have killed both children and adults sitting or sleeping peacefully within their own homes.
And what is always in the hands of the shooter? What is the weapon of choice? A gun, always a gun. Within seconds the murderer-to-be can aim, squeeze, and deliver devastating and lasting consequences for the family and friends of the victim—as the rippling effects of pain, sorrow, and suffering begin to travel far beyond the immediate tragedy of senseless murder and unforgiving death.
I’m not saying that the current Epidemic of Violence is an easy one to cure but if we are to discuss the matter rationally with the expressed intent of trying to reduce this out-of-control Epidemic, it would be helpful if some people would stop ignoring the ease with which guns make possible all these many, many senseless violent deaths.
To say “Guns don’t kill people” is a bald-faced lie that ignores the fact that guns absolutely do kill people!! For anyone, including the gun-rights advocates who oppose any and all gun safety restrictions, to ignore the ease with which guns are used repeatedly, day after day after day, to injure and kill their fellow human beings, their fellow Americans, is either self-inflicted ignorance or criminally negligent stupidity!
EVERY TIME THE TRIGGER IS SQUEEZED
IT SHOULD BE APPARENT TO ALL THAT
GUNS DO KILL PEOPLE!!!
In less time than it takes to read or write the three capitalized lines above, you and your whole family could have been killed by one angry deranged person with a single gun. That is our reality and it is not to be cured by NRA slogans of no intrinsic value whatsoever. It won’t be cured by wishful thinking or by pretending that tens of millions of guns–and the very ease of their availability—have nothing to do with the deadly consequences of thousands of people dying annually from the deadly fire of guns.
To those who still wish to say that guns and bullets don’t kill people, isn’t it time for them to wake up and assume the mantle of reason given to every adult human being as the greatest gift of all? How much longer must we put up with the ridiculous pretense, the mind-boggling denial, that guns are not an essential part of the Epidemic of Violence?
The ease with which guns can be acquired and used to cause mayhem and death must be addressed as part of any large-scale effort to reduce and eliminate needless deaths from the midst of our democratic peaceful society.
This Orgy of Gun Violence is not something to which we must capitulate or accept as inevitable: we have the power and we have the right to take those steps necessary to make our nation and our neighborhoods safe places in which to live so that we may ALL enjoy the greatest of all promises our country ever made:
“THE RIGHT TO LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS”
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness . . .”
The Declaration of Independence, 1776
III NOTES ON “ESSAY ON REASON”: DO GUNS MAKE US SAFE?
The NRA position on gun control has more than one apparent fallacy in its reasoning. The most obvious one is this: guns make us safe. This actually is a laughable idea since all the evidence points to the contrary. America has been inundated with guns for a very long time. Today there are tens of millions of guns all over the place. That should make the American people extremely safe, according to the NRA.
Meanwhile, the amount of violence committed with guns has not slowed down at all as the number of guns continuously increases. To the contrary, violence committed with guns has reached epidemic proportions, has it not? Hundreds of persons are killed yearly with guns; check that thought. The number should read “thousands” of persons are killed every year with guns; it just hurts too much to write “thousands” instead of “hundreds.” It is a mad scenario spiraling out of control!
Having a lot of guns around doesn’t guarantee anyone’s safety. Perhaps it’s mere “coincidence” but a strong statistical case could be made for the exact opposite conclusion: the more guns, the more gun violence. Just go ask the families of those thousands of persons killed by guns every year! How safe did guns make them and their loved ones?
If the number of people killed by guns is truly staggering in America, how many more nameless victims are seriously wounded and maimed? The notion that the widespread presence of guns somehow makes us “safe” is flatly contradicted by the evidence. Perhaps the murderer feels safer after his unconscionable crime, but I hope and trust that is not the kind of “safety” to which the NRA refers.
If the presence of guns make us safe, and we have had guns available since the Colonial Period, you would think American citizens by now would be the safest people of any nation. We should be totally free of gun violence. Has that happened? Look at the historical record: when did this “safety” effect first begin showing up, pray tell?
Doesn’t it occur to anybody that the proliferation of more and more guns has always meant less safety and more danger? Isn’t it obvious that the production of an endless stream of guns has meant greater violence and not greater safety? If the latter were true wouldn’t we all be as safe as babies wrapped in warm blankets, rather than having to hear reports of an endless stream of murders on the news night after night?
Where is this supposed safety that guns bring to a society? The NRA’s position contains the biggest fallacy imaginable, that guns somehow mean safety. The escalation of quantity and quality of gun manufacturing has been met with an equal escalation of deadly violence.
It is a curious fact that societies with far fewer guns than the U.S. have far fewer crimes as well. Perhaps these nations missed the NRA’s tutorial “proving” popular safety would improve with increasing gun productivity; perhaps the economic profitability of gun manufacturing blinds certain Americans to any truth but one: the dollar sign, which reinforces “rugged individualism” in a rather peculiar one-sided manner.
If one gun makes us safe, then two guns make us safer, one supposes; ten guns safer still; and 300,000,000 guns the safest of all. Why the NRA persists in palming off this ridiculous assertion, almost comical in its delusional grandeur, is anyone’s guess. The historical record down to the present day tells us that this view is utterly false. Just the opposite is true: the increasing prevalence of guns means the increasing prevalence of senseless violence and an unending succession of tragic murders.
Single murders have long since given way to multiple slayings, and these in turn are now being replaced by mass murder on a grand scale. Instead of one person killed at a time, now it’s three or four or five; instead of five persons killed at a time, now it’s ten or fifteen or twenty. The maximum number keeps growing and no one knows where it will end. Some safety record for a nation inundated with guns!
The number of people killed in such multiple victim shootings is on the rise, not the decline. If that situation makes us “safe”, then the word has lost all its meaning and should be discarded from the dictionary. Guns are used to kill people constantly in this country, and that number is on the rise. That is the truth that no amount of NRA posturing can ever deny. Among the many questionable views of the NRA, this one—that guns make us safe—contains the largest fallacy of all!
IV QUESTIONS TO PONDER
Should convicted felons be allowed to buy and own guns after prison?
TO SENATOR TED CRUZ:
Sir, do you think convicted felons who have committed violent felonies, when they get out of prison, should have the right of access to guns under the Second Amendment?
Sir, do you think convicted felons who have committed violent felonies, while they are still in prison, should have the right of access to guns under the Second Amendment?
Do you think a murderer has a Second Amendment right to murder people?
Do you think convicted felons who are told, as a condition of parole, they may not associate with other convicted felons, are being constitutionally violated?
If we could interview victims of gun violence—persons killed by guns—if we could bring them back to life for a few minutes and ask them a question–do you think they would agree or disagree with the statement “Guns make people safe”?
Do you think individuals have the right to make speeches designed to incite people to riot, under the protection of the First Amendment’s “freedom of speech” guarantee?
Do you think a person can be held liable for slander or libel when their statements are blatant falsehoods, or should they be free to say anything under the First Amendment?
Speaking mathematically and hypothetically:
Do you think if no one in our society had a gun—I mean no one—do you think there would be more gun deaths, or fewer gun deaths, than we currently are experiencing?
Have you ever estimated the total yearly profits made by the gun industry?
HISTORICAL ADDENDUM
Note: “cruz” is the Spanish word for “cross”:
For the Latin American nations conquered by the Spanish-speaking Catholic conquistadores, the word has special religious significance: the “cross” is holy. It is the place where Jesus Christ, a man of peace, was crucified. There are no stories in the Bible of Jesus owning a gun or carrying a weapon of any kind. His message was one of love and peace, of kind words and actions, of belief in a virtuous life and faith in an afterlife.
Only God has the power of life and death: not humans. “Thou shall not kill” is one of the commandments, is it not? How ironic that a Republican Warbird—transforming himself into a militaristic demagogue if he had his way—should have the last name “Cruz” and dishonor it in nearly everything he says and does!!
His last name should be “Matar” (to kill): that at least would be more appropriate given his current stance on favoring the unrestricted availability of guns to anyone and everyone. He seems to show an all too great willingness to accept countless murders and horrifying mass killings as necessary collateral damage, as though we should learn to accept the ever higher death count as a normal part of life.
The American people do not accept murder and slaughter as normal, Senator Cruz, and if you knew just a little bit more about the real history of American democracy, as well as your own religion, even you might be able to understand why!!
