Pondering Gun Control

Since we all know that

• “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun”^A, and since
• mass shootings have been going up over the last three decades (as shown in the histogram at the bottom of “Couple identified as suspects in California mass shooting”),
  To see the Note click here.To hide the Note click here.
  Since the “fine print” is so restrictive on that chart, you might want to check out this slideshow of a USA Today investigation at BEHIND THE BLOODSHED; THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICA’S MASS KILLINGS.
  and since
• Americans (per capita) already own about ten times as many guns as the rest of the world^A1)

then we must conclude that there just aren’t that many good guys out there with guns, and there is no way to get enough good guys with guns!

But first, let’s take one more look at the Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It would have been nice if they could have spoken plain English back then, but the way I read it this means that it is the state’s responsibility and duty to control gun ownership for the purpose of establishing a militia. The federal government would have to step away (except to meet other requirements like the interstate commerce clause), and the individual would have to be content with whatever gun privileges s/he is left with.  There is a nice discussion of the second amendment at Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute.

I’ve never understood the implicit argument of the National Rifle Association (NRA) that if we try to take guns away from confirmed bad guys and crazy people, then we have to take them from everybody.  Really!!  If you are going to stick to that requirement, then in order to save people’s lives I may have no choice but to accept your conditions and vote to take all guns.  But that would be sad to think that every conscientious gun owner had to suffer because you couldn’t differentiate between the confirmed bad guys and everybody else.  This inability of yours also begs the question “If you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys, then who the f&@# are you shooting at.” In my mind you are also too dangerous to carry a gun.

I may be willing to negotiate on this, but if you are going to sway me you are going to have to give up the one-liners that you and the NRA stole from Comedy Central, and present some real arguments supported by real facts, not fear.