Guns, Glorious Guns!

I know it's been a long time since my last post.  That's because I've tried addressing this issue several times, but each attempt becomes too long and wordy.  So, I finally decided to simply share my thoughts on various areas of the U.S. gun control issue.  Yes, I believe that the recent shootings in Connecticut, Texas, California, Colorado and others have brought this issue to a point where citizens will demand real action.

About me
I do not own a gun.  I have used a gun twice in my life.  I shot a .22 rifle as a teen at summer camp and an M16 in the U.S. Army.

Background checks
Like many Americans I assumed this was being done before any weapon could be bought at a store, gun show, private sale or anywhere else.  It should go without saying that no weapon should be sold to anyone with a violent, mentally unstable or criminal background, period. 

Hobbyists
Legitimate reasons to own a gun would include hunting, target shooting and collecting.  Of course all weapons should be registered.

Banned weapons
Items that need to be banned are all high power assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and any automatic firing weapon.  I may not be using the correct terms here, and the list is almost certainly not complete. 

Self Defense
My own non-scientific survey of things I recall hearing in the news tells me that there are relatively very few recorded instances of a gun owner successfully defending oneself vs. the number of deaths, accidental or otherwise, reported as a result of guns being available in the home.  It's been reported that people with a gun in the home are much more likely to be killed by a gun than those who have no guns in the home.

The 2nd Amendment
The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution is prefaced by the 18th-century need for public defense via state militias.  We have since created state police, local police, county sheriff and national guard forces along with several federal military branches to provide for our defense.  We no longer use militias composed of armed civilians.  There is no need for the civilian population to be armed, nor does the 2nd Amendment broadly confer a "right" for civilians to bear arms.

Responsibility
Criminal responsibility should be applied to any gun owner whose weapon is used in committing a crime, accidental or not, and with or without the owner's knowledge.

Entertainment
We need to create a shame in Hollywood against the heroic portrayal of violence in movies, much as has been done against smoking in movies and bullying in schools.  Of course this would also apply to video games, novels and TV.

Modern America
We are no longer a nation of explorers and cowboys taming the wild frontier.  We live in the 21st century and are a modern, civilized, world-class country.  We need to shed our Davy Crockett attitude and accept that our nation's children are ever so much more important than the self-deluding macho dreams of defending our turf from the boogeyman.

Bringing it home
I know it's easy for me as a non gun owner to call for a ban on civilian weapons.  I need to think in terms of someone calling for a ban on my favorite hobby of motorcycling.  How would I respond if motorcycles were shown to be inherently dangerous to society?  It would certainly be hard to give up my Honda.  

Conclusions
We will hear the usual counterarguments about how guns don't commit crimes, people do; about how society needs improved treatment of the mentally ill; about how banning guns from law-abiding citizens will insure that only criminals have guns.  All this is just smoke, designed to distract and obscure the real issues.  It's time for America to stand up and become the peaceful, civilized, moral leader the world expects us to be.

The case against guns is that they are primarily designed to kill.  And that should be the death sentence of private gun ownership in America.

Thanks for reading my thoughts.  They are only mine; I'd like to hear yours.