Guns - Put A Cork In It

If we weren't in a perfect storm I wonder if all the non-stop hype about the evil of guns and their owners would be getting the press they are.  Perfect storm?  The still open wounds from the Connecticut tragedy added to the preliminary hearing on the Aurora, CO theater shooter. Add to that the continuing headlines about how gun sales have soared and carry permit application lines are out the door.

Of course you have to include the anger or despair you feel when you're making maybe $25,000 as a bank teller  and the CEO of JP Morgan Chase is getting $4.1 million in salary Plus a 4.5 million bonus plus $17 million in stock.

I  think I understand a lot of it and it has little to do with the shootings.  It has to do with one more right being threatened by government and the inequity paired with hypocrisy that we're supposed to ascribe to without question.  The threat of an executive order from a dictatorial President doesn't help.  By human nature we behave like children thinking we're being treated unfairly so we dig in even deeper.

It has far more to do with the human condition than it does with guns.  Then too, what about those guns?  I live in the West where guns are a part of life far removed from street gangs. They're used for hunting, and yes I agree, one doesn't need an AK47 to hunt.  Never-the-less I'm looking at numbers more than calibers or rounds.

Hub was raised in Montana; he hunted.  His Dad was in law enforcement and they lived two doors away from the state penitentiary.  They had guns. Hub found early on he had no taste for killing so he no longer hunts but we still have guns dating from way back then.  How many others do?  Many, many.  They're in collections, they hang over fire places, they're just there. Often rarely if ever used.  But don't you high and mighty suits in Washington dare try to take them away.  They're ours.  Fair and square for whatever reason.

We will always have the unbalanced who will find their way to weaponry no matter what.  I think the hype about "guns" is adding to the problem rather than helping to resolve it.  But then we do tend to over react rather than think things through.

It's the imagery.  It's horrible and heart breaking but it is essential to keep it in perspective before it turns into an even larger tragedy when masses of gun owners decide to fight for their rights.  It might not happen.  It probably won't but think what a flash mob could do if pushed.

Every one is on pins and needles these days, nerves are strained, tempers quick.  It would be prudent to cool the rhetoric to something other than self righteous threats. If you want a war on guns go after the gangs in cities like Chicago  where they are picking off people one at a time yet get no where near the press because of their race, their economic circumstances and the fact that while the total numbers for a month might be as high as Connecticut or Colorado, it's piecemeal.

And it has nothing to do with the locals who hunt to put food on their table in an economically depressed area.  They're good people.  Who have guns for a reason. They need them and they use them responsibly.