Like Button

Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Common Sense -- or Nothing Like It

They tell me that something like 11,000 people have been killed in gun violence in America so far this year. Clearly a bad thing. So two states (and a third on the cusp) passed major gun control reform in the past few days. The idea is if we can control the guns that are made available, people will stop shooting people. And we are all in favor of people not shooting people.

According to a Forbes story last year, auto accidents are responsible for about 1.3 million deaths world wide each year. So why aren't we doing something about it? Well, you can't outlaw cars. And the CDC says that tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. -- more then 480,000 deaths annually. Yet no one is banning cigarettes nationwide ... and they aren't even in the Bill of Rights. And the CDC says that in 2020 (the latest data, apparently) more than 620,000 children died by abortion in America. But we're fighting hard to keep the freedom to continue that right.

So, they are banning some types of rifles and pistols, giving more rules on storage and handling, making sure background checks are being done, and raising the minimum age from 18 to 21. The thinking here is, "If people don't care about breaking the law by killing other people with guns, let's make more laws they won't care about to prevent them from getting guns." Mind you, I am not some avid "gun rights" type. Pass gun controls. Not a problem for me. But I am actually embarrassed to think that the leadership of this nation believes that making laws to prevent law-breakers from breaking laws will stop people from breaking laws. And it only demonstrates the fact that most people don't have a clue what the real problem is. (Hint: It is not the availability of fire arms.) (Additional hint: Rom 3:23; 8:7.)

3 comments:

Craig said...

I saw a meme the other day that went something like...

A flock of sheep saw one of their number killed by a wolf, they concluded that teeth were a dangerous weapon, therefore the sheep all surrendered their teeth for the good of the flock.

All gun laws do is to make it more difficult for or punish the people who will never commit a crime with a gun. If the result was that these laws resulted in stiffer prison sentences for those who committed gun crimes, it could be argued that keeping them incarcerated longer would reduce gun violence eventually. The problem is that in the cities with the most gun crimes, the perpetrators are going to keep getting released early, take advantage of bail reforms, and not get charged by Soros DA's. Making this a waste of time.

David said...

As has been pointed out many times by many people, guns have been readily available in this country from its inception, and what some would call assault rifles have been just as available since before I was born (by Washington State's definition even the old M-1 Garande would be an assault rifle), and yet we didn't have anything like the shootings we've been having for the past 20 years. What have had since the 60s is the break down of the family and the loss of any value of human life. You tell me which one seems to be the more likely culprit for cause. Guns are simply the tool being used to carry out the feeling that humans aren't worth much.

Unknown said...

It's interesting that we continue to blame the guns instead of the heart for the reason for violence.