Bipolar, Guns and Obamacare, part 2

If you’ll indulge me to proceed, onto gun rights and gun control go I.   I have had a change of heart in regards to this recently due to a great article written by a gun owner who made some persuasive arguments that made a lot of sense.  Again, perhaps the travel author’s saying can be applied to this as well, not hard or soft on guns but smart on guns.

First off, we need to recognize that by and large we’re too far gone for gun control legislation to make much of a difference at this point.  As a gun seller relayed to this gun owning author, “What else can I pay $400 for and have it passed onto my grandchildren in working condition?”  In addition, a student has now made a 3D printer model for an AR 15 that he has made available for free on the internet.

So, what’s a smart way forward on guns?  Require gun safety classes as well as gun safes.  Opponents of gun rights would probably argue that what I just wrote is an oxymoron, but that is a fairly short-sighted view, isn’t it?  If we’re going to allow you to own a gun, the least you could do is know how to handle it.  You owe it to society as a whole to be responsible with such a potentially dangerous weapon.  As far as gun safes, this author said something like 70% of gun deaths were made with guns that had been stolen.  Again, please be responsible if you’re going to have a gun.

For supporters of gun control legislation, I want to ask you a few things.  Do you think it’s wise to take guns out of everyone’s hands except the criminals’ hands?  Guns are a reality in America, and the quicker we realize that the better we are.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say the incredibly ignorant quote, “An armed society is a polite society.”  This is proved largely untrue by anyone who has been anywhere overseas.  America is known for a lot of things outside her borders, I can assure you our politeness isn’t one of them.  However, guns are just a part of America and always will be, and we regress if we pass stringent controls that make it impossible to even own a basic hand gun.  Take Illinois as an example, Chicago in particular to what happens when you implement strict gun laws.

For opponents of gun control legislation, I want to ask you a few things as well.  Would some very basic measures such as background checks be such a terrible idea?  Is it a strong argument for individual freedom that an ex-con can easily buy an AR-15 at a gun show without so much as a background check?  Would it kill you to pass a basic measure like that?  I can assure you it will kill you or others if we don’t pass a basic measure like that.

Where is this magical land where we enshrine gun rights but protest providing healthcare for everyone?  Where is it implied wisdom that it’s better to give a person who has a mental illness better access to potentially massacre-inducing weapons than it is to let them have access to affordable health insurance so they can then buy affordable medication to help ward off a mental collapse and the subsequent larger likelihood of previously mentioned massacre?  Only in America, land of the free, home of the brave.  Only in America, land of the armed, home of the sick.

“Give me your tired, your poor.  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

“I will provide them with all the guns they could ever hope for, but not affordable health insurance!”