The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is FEAR MONGERING Itself!!

There's been yet another tragedy involving an insane person and guns. This time in Aurora, CO. So many silly arguments as to why we should do nothing about this and just let is happen again.

The blame game and finger pointing is in full swing...and no doubt the gun lobby and the politicians they sponsor will wait a few days out of respect for the dead but then will start with the fear mongering propaganda that their political opponents are "Going to take our guns away" and "Be a good american and buy more guns and ammo before they are taken away from you by a government who wants to control you!!"

Sigh...why are we constantly duped into more consumption and consumerism??? Why can't people see we are playing perfectly into the gun lobby's hands? If they create an environment of fear of losing guns (which is ridiculous considering there are more guns than people in the US), then maybe people will race out and buy more gun and ammo products. In fact, that is exactly what happened. There was a huge effort to dupe people into believing President Obama was going to take our guns away and what happened? Huge increases in guns and ammo sales:

Ammo.net posted the below infographic and posed this question to their readers:

"American firearm sales and concealed handgun permit applications are at all-time highs since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. President Obama's perceived hostility towards gun owners has been one of the key factors behind the multi-year financial boom the firearms industry continues to enjoy. In fact, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is actively preparing to work to defeat President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, according to Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, who recently said the following at the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.:

"Lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term. We see the president's strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms' freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the U.S. Constitution...When the sun goes down on election day Barack Obama will have America’s gun owners to thank for his defeat.” -
Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA, February 10th, 2012

Ironically, the perceived hostility towards gun owners by President Obama has actually helped the firearms industry tremendously. Since the 2008 election, more Americans than ever before are purchasing firearms & ammunition. This has meant massive increases in sales by firearm & ammunition makers, billions more in federal and state tax collections related to guns & ammo, increased membership in the NRA, and hundreds of thousands of new Americans carrying concealed handguns. Therefore, should the firearms industry support President Obama for a second term or not?"

Seriously...click on this:

The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Barack Obama

Do you see my point? First of all, President Obama has made no indication that he intends to go after the 2nd Amendment nor has he indicated that he intends to push for changes in gun regulation. In fact, his silence on this issue reflects his inability to navigate Washington politics to achieve common sense regulation as well as his fear of the gun lobby. But I'll save that topic for another day....

So here we are..purchasing more guns and ammo out of irrational fear and who is benefitting from this? Pretty much no one other than gun and ammo manufacturers. Yes, I see the additional tax revenue but it's not now nor will it every be enough to justify the loss of life and tragedy inflicted on our citizens due to gun violence.

Up next...the silly and irrelevant argument of "guns don't kill people, people kill people" and therefore, "we shouldn't regulate guns because lawless people don't care and will do what they want." Yes, lawless people will always exist and will do what they want regardless of the law but that doesn't mean we stop making smart laws and regulations. People do lots of stupid things that can lead to their death and /or the death of others and that hasn't stopped us from smart regulations like speed limits and seat belts. Assault weaons and high capacity clips make violent events even more lethal and so do lax gun regulations. We should keep working on smart gun regulations as well.

A personal favorite argument against gun control... "If someone else had a gun there, they would have stopped it." Okay...so no doubt, it does happen that other people with guns can safely intervene. You here stories bout it all the time. But in this instance, the shooter in Aurora, CO was wearing full swat gear including a kevlar vest, kevlar helmet...even a bullet proof cup to protect his family jewels. He wore a gas mask and threw tear gas into the crowd. He was armed with 4 fully automatic weapons (2 assault rifles and 2 hand guns) and several high capacity clips (one with 100 bullets). Even the most accomplished marksman, would have had trouble taking him down under these circumstances.

The eye witness accounts depict chaos and screaming. No one knew if he was the only shooter or not. The movie theater was dark, smokey, loud and packed with panicked people. Even a member of Navy Seal Team 6 would not have been able to neutralize the threat before the shooter got off a hundred rounds. Let's suppose just an average citizen had their gun on them in theater, this shooter was wearing bullet proof clothing so you would have been much better off rushing him and tackling him than trying to use your own gun to stop him. A strong argument for self defense classes if you ask me!

More armed citizens does not equal less violence. Smart and safe gun owners keep their guns locked up. Even gun owners who choose to conceal and carry, know that you don't point at something unless you intend to shoot it. In this instance and in others (i.e., the Gabby Gifford shooting), it was chaos and for someone else to attempt to target a shooter that is weaving in and out of a crowd of innocent people would only have resulted in more injuries  and / or death by friendly fire. In fact, there was a man with a gun at the Giffords shooting and he chose not to use it. Even instances where people safely intervene or use a gun as self defense will tell you that no one else other than the attacker was in danger of being shot.

More guns do not make us safer. Personally, I don't want a bunch of vigilanties running around with guns and intervening as they see fit. I prefer to leave that up to law enforcement. I'm not saying people should not be able to own guns. I totally get the appeal. I just do not feel that more guns make us safer. The US has more guns than other country and therefore, more gun violence and deaths than any other country. I do believe in smart gun regulations and doing everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of people who are going to use them to harm us.

Another argument you hear against gun regulation is that it hasn't worked in other countries and it is followed up with examples of Hitler, Stalin and Quaddafi.

All I can say is, "huh? You can't be serious?!?!" You may be fooled by this style of fear mongering but I am not so easily taken in by non-sense like this this image to the right. Using examples like these to justify less regulations on guns is completely ridiculous, ignorant and dangerous.


Let's see...what else do the opposers to gun regulation say:

"Save the Second Amendment!!!", "Don't tread on me!!"

I'm sorry but the 2nd amendment does NOT guarantee the right for the mentally unstable to carry fully automatic weapons with high capacity clips. I don't see that written up there, do you?

Let's be realistic and modern about the 2nd Amendment. It was written during a very different time when we were not the world military power that we are now and when there was a real fear of tyrannical governments. Times have obviously changed. First of all, there is no threat of a tyrannical government and even if our government decided to turn us and acting like the Syrian government is acting right now, no amount of guns will help us. As President Bush so eloquently described our military prowess in the terms of "shock & awe", we would be helpless against bombs, tanks, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Attempting to fight off our "shock and awe" military with guns would be the equivalent of throwing rocks. If we are really concerned about a tyrannical government, we should be arming ourselves with tanks, blackhawk helicopters, IED's and nuclear weapons if we ever have a fight chance.

Second, the framers could not possibly have envisioned the advancement in weapons and ammo technology that would be available to the masses. Our regulations MUST address the times we live in today. I feel we should put the assault weapons bans in place and I believe we should highly regulate high capacity clips.

Fear mongering about the 2nd Amendment being under attack is almost as ridiculous as believing President Obama isn't a US citizen. It is just one of of the many wedge issues lobbying groups (in this case, the gun lobby) and our political leaderships use to divide and conquer us. We should no longer allow ourselves to be fooled by fear mongering about the 2nd Amendment.

That is all...