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2003-09-08 - 9:59 p.m.
I'm not anti-gun, I'm anti-killing things. More the things than people. But people too.
It's a guy thing, I think. Really. Men love intricate mechanisms. Machined metal. Tools. Engines. Knives. Guns. Instruments.
I'm fascinated by workmanship. Good design, and good realization.
Helicopters. Cars. Rock hammers. Sextants.
It's part of the appeal of guns. That they're mechanisms. Tools. Toys.
It's an argument used by the gun nuts. That guns are just a tool, that it's the people wielding them that are the criminals. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". Or the stupid joke: "Guns don't kill people, BULLETS kill people". Heh.
The problem here in the good ol' USA is we have way too many guns in circulation. And way too many of them are untraceable. And a lot of them are way too powerful to be in the hands of civilians.
Worse still, people in the USA have lost, if we ever had, the ability to be civil and courteous to one another. At every level from the White House down to the convenience store clerk. People don't treat each other with courtesy and respect. Drivers cut one another off on the roads. People cut ahead of each other in merchant check out lines.
It's these day to day slights. These indignities, these small transgressions that cause people to build up resentment and anger. Then they need to get it out on some other, some "enemy". The pressure builds and boom, some poor guy who couldn't take it anymore opens up with the easily obtainable AK on the unsuspecting diners at the local burger mart.
We need to make it difficult to obtain guns designed solely for the purpose of killing humans. Not impossible, just damn difficult.
We need to have a more stable society.
***Come back tomorrow for my simple three step plan for solving these two fundamental causes of gun violence. Three simple steps which will cost the taxpayer a mere dollar a year in additional taxation.***
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So, how do you like them apples?