thecrimeshop

America needs more gun control in wake of recent shootings?

Or is is that we are looking at the situation wrong?

Do we really need a map showing us all over the US where one can purchase a gun? NPR had one up today.

Do we really need to know how many gun shops vs pizza joints, burger joints and coffee shops are in America? That was all over Facebook yesterday.

Quite simply:

“The problem isn’t the problem, the problem is your attitude about the problem.”

That more than anything sums up rather perfectly “gun control” here in America.

It works both ways, on the side of gun rights activists and on the side of those who want more gun control.

History lessons tell us that human beings have been enjoying the privilege of killing each other since we evolved and grew arms and legs, whether it was one at a time or we achieved mass killings and even without the benefit of guns quite a few times throughout history.

In today’s world however, we have guns.

President Obama took the time yesterday to vow more gun control during his time in Orlando.

Allow for me to just say, that is a rather ignorant thing to say, think or try to do. It is completely ignorant all the way around.

Why take rights away from law abiding, responsible gun owners who are not planning on killing anyone?

I know this pisses off those who support more gun control but how would you feel if someone walked in one day and told you that they were going to take away your right to own a particular cell phone because suddenly the government couldn’t access it’s data due to encryption and they feel that’s dangerous and poses a serious threat to the US all because some individuals recently went on a shooting spree for whatever reason?

We don’t have to use cell phones for this example, think about the Government taking away your right to eat your favorite foods all because millions of individuals ate too much of it and became obese and died as a result?

Watching gun control debates reminds me a of kindergarten, we all had that one kid in class who screwed up and we all paid the price for it. Well, we are not children anymore are we? Most gun owners are not either and we should not treat them like that.

You don’t punish the entire class over the Government’s fuck up here. And I am not anti-government at all, I do however call it like I see and this is pretty black and white.

Just because you don’t agree with it or like, just remember this, that gun owner might one day be the guy that saves your life, with his evil gun that shoots and kills.

In the same breath, makers of semi-automatic weapons should consider making the mags smaller so a potential killer can’t shoot as many rounds into his intended victims.

It’s all called compromise. Find one and work it that way.

Yet, none of that resolves the problem or problems if you will.

We have mass shooters who kill for revenge, some do it in the name of whatever God they believe in, some do it simply because they are batshit crazy, part of the mafia or some street gang and some do it because they are radicalized or are truly part of a terrorist organization.

The point is, guns are not the problem, the problem is how the guns got into the hands of these killers in the first place.

I did not see the President go to Chicago and comfort any of the families of the 69 individuals who were shot over this past memorial day weekend, in fact I didn’t see him vowing for gun law changes after that bloody weekend.

Or did the media just not blow it out of proportion and cover it 24/7 and I somehow missed it one newscast?

Even more frightening, how many of the shooters from Chicago’s bloody Memorial day weekend possessed those guns legally?

Some of our recent mass killers have owned the weapons they used LEGALLY and/or guns that were in a home where the owner purchased them LEGALLY! Let that sink in for a moment.

I have personally asked President Obama to address situations like this and you know the response I received was utter bullshit. A lot like a bag of chips, over half air…

When I say a lot of the mass shootings are a direct result of the Government’s own fuck ups I am dead serious and more laws are not going to fix it! The problem is clearly on the part of our Government, not those law abiding, non-mass shooting type of individuals, who are purchasing guns, making new laws are not going to fix it when it’s broken on the inside.

Again, I am far from Anti-Establishment, I am on the side of law enforcement, just not always in agreement with congress and policy makers.

Just looking at a few, let’s look at it realistically.

Who cleared Omar Mateen to own guns? Not the gun dealer, not the gun maker and most certainly not one of the 49 individuals he murdered.

Adam Lanza was known to have mental issues, yet he had access to weapons because his mother owned them legally.

Robert Dear didn’t have anything quite official on record that would have disqualified him from owning an AK-47 even though he had issues with law enforcement and behaved erratically.

The Weapons in used San Bernardino were also purchased legally.  

So again, who is responsible for that oversight, who is responsible for ensuring guns do not make it into the hands of whack jobs and if they own guns who then is responsible for taking them away when someone begins to have issues even though they haven’t hurt someone?

So what is the answer?

To find the answer, we need to address the problems. To accomplish that we need to go back to the source.

The number one source of each mass shooting is the person who is doing the shooting.

In all reality I look at someone like Robert Dear and I get it, the police if I reported him for being an Ahole, they’d look at me and ask me to be on my way and do nothing.

My dad and I have this conversation a lot, well I take that back it’s not really a conversation. He will tell me that his doctors have no and I quote “goddamn right to know if I own guns.” and I will in turn correct him and say that they have every right to know.

You can visibly see both his blood pressure rise and him shutting down ignoring my every word. My stance is simple, sometimes the medications a doctor puts you on can affect someone psychologically, hence make someone lose his/her mind. Mixing meds, sometimes taking herbal remedies, imbalances and so on.

If you really want to have a good time, pull out a few drinks, make some popcorn and watch my dad and  I “discuss” mental health issues and the rights of law enforcement to remove weapons from a home based off of medical professionals just simply suspecting a person might be in need of a little time away from access to a weapon.

The point is, more laws are not going to resolve the issues until we understand the issues, until we change our attitudes about the problem.

The number one mistake is thinking that problem is guns and lack of gun laws. The problem is background checks and ensuring owners of guns are still on the up and up mentally after legally obtaining a gun.

We should never kid ourselves into thinking that gun ownership is a right. We have a right to die and pay taxes and that’s about it. In America we tend to have this attitude that we have a “right” to things.

Gun ownership is a privilege based off of one’s ability to show his or her level of responsibility. If you keep a loaded gun where a two year old or you’re mentally disturbed housemate, husband, wife, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, neighbor, friend etc. can get to it, you are not a responsible gun owner and shouldn’t own one.

A lot has to go into changes. Right now after every mass shooting (but not Chicago and Memorial Day Weekend) we hear the President vow for more gun laws without ever addressing the actual issues.

Each shooting is different, how the weapons were accessed is different, the individuals doing the killing are different. We need to focus on where the breaks happened so as to allow those individuals to kill before we change or make more gun laws.

The background check system works but also doesn’t work.

The “if you see something, say something,” isn’t working…clearly

Anyone the FBI looks into as a suspected terrorist can still own a gun

The no fly list is the ugly stepsister of a bad joke

My list could go on and on here…

In order for gun laws to work, they have be effective and they have to benefit the greater good of society. While at the same time, we need to sit down and finally address how in the hell guns are still ending up on the street that shouldn’t be. Hence the shootings in Chicago??!?!? Guns that I’m pretty sure, were not purchased legally.

The problem is:

“Another mass shooting”

Our attitude about the problem:

“We need more gun laws”

The problem, that isn’t really the problem?

“Our attitude is that we are going to throw more laws on the books without analyzing the actual problem, the why, when and how.  We are going to ignore the chinks in the chain”

We have laws on the books with regards to guns that simply aren’t working right now…but hey why not toss a few more logs into that fire…let’s see how that works.

If we are not going to make the effort to fix the actual problems, address them, maybe start to take a look at them, well then that is just ignorance at it’s finest.

That is American Government 101 though…zero thought process, zero accountability.

Cristal M Clark

@thecrimeshop

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