Tuesday, August 20, 2013

"We are an effective team." (Oblivion)

Let's boil it down. Anti-gun and pro-gun.

Anti-gun advocates want private citizens to not have access to guns. Core points- without guns, gun-related death rates would plummet, crime would decrease, accidental shootings and suicides would be non-existent.

Pro-gun advocates want private citizens to be unrestricted in regards to guns. It's a Constitutional right, and is a basic human right. Having guns would help keep you safe, deter crime, and are a fun hobby.

We all know my stance. Pro-gun all the way. I do believe that there should be some reasonable limitations on gun ownership (history of violent crimes) and areas where you can't carry (I really think bars are a bad place to carry).

There are thousands of opinions and articles that support the 2nd Amendment, some written by people far more versed and educated in the matter than I. Most are readily available by doing a basic Internet search. As far as gun ownership being a basic human right, that goes to say it's a right of self-defense.

Look at history. Ignore the "guns are bad" viewpoint. When man came out of the garden, or cave, or primordial ooze, there wasn't much in way of defensive tools. Our bare hands against lions, tigers, and bears, oh my. We had to create defensive tools, and tools to kill our dinner. Spears, rocks, hammers, bows and arrows. The primitive tools. Then came iron. Steel. Spanish steel, much stronger than our native blades. The era of the sword and shield. Battles fought, wars raged. Until the next weapon arrived.

Firearms. Slow and bulky and awkward. But lethal from greater distances over a sword or arrow. Improvements created devastating armies. Created superiority complexes that changed the world.

But overall, our methods for self defense has improved throughout history. While we may live in a world that doesn't require such lethal forms of self-defense (sidenote: if you're of this viewpoint, you have a very narrow worldview, and your opinion is completely worthless), it is not the government's job- nor other citizen's- to prohibit the options we have available to us for self-defense.