which came first, the gun or the killer?

And don't give me that old NRA chant, "Guns don't kill.  People kill." 

None of us are so stupid not to understand that a gun, just lying there is going to jump up and kill someone.  Even if I pick it up and it is unloaded, it is not going to kill anyone. 

The NRA has made a straw man out of guns.  So let's get real.  People kill.  People kill for all sorts of reasons, and crazy people kill for no particular reason at all. 

It's time we took one big step to making it more difficult for people to kill. 

Take away the God Damned Guns! 

This morning we hear about a crazy man who entered a theater and began blasting randomly, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least three dozen more.  What horror!  But imagine if we all were packing.  Shots ring out and suddenly the theater is filled with a hundred guns blazing away. 

You say that this would not happen?  I wouldn't want to be there to see which one of us is right. 

People with guns kill much more easily than people with clubs, knives or bare hands. 

If that crazy man had dashed into the theater armed with a can opener, he might have actually killed someone and cut the Hell out of a few more before he was clubbed to the ground.  But the toll would not have been so horrific. 

The NRA, in order to protect their little toys of destruction, have lied and lied and lied until some of us are convinced that guns really are safe, and guns really do give us protection, and since bad guys will always have guns, we need to have them, too. 

Here's the bitter truth.  No gun can be made so safe that it can't be used to kill.  That's what it's made to do.  Just as a corporation is made to gather wealth at any price, guns are made to kill.  And the truth is that Human Beings are not made with enough good sense to possess guns. 

You disagree?  Hey, turn on the news and just look at what guns, bombs and all those other off spring of guns are doing in the world.  I suppose cluster bombs don't kill, either.  Only if you're so clumsy as to step on one. 

Unmanned drones don't kill...unless some Drone in Colorado pushes a button.  Does that mean that buttons kill? 

 

We're nuts if we think that we should all be allowed to own guns.  We humans are so unstable that we can't even drive on a crowded highway without going into a rage.  If our spouse tunes the TV to another channel during the ball game we turn into a monster.  We slam our children around, get drunk and slam anyone around, get pissed off at our fellow workers and shove them down the elevator shaft.  We spend lots of energy "getting even" with others.  Okay, lots of it is just in our heads.  But for every good deed you can count, I can tell you about a mean little revenge someone pulled off. 

Until we all grow up we don't need guns.  And if anyone sneaks one home, we can grab up our clubs, kick their door in and beat them to death. 

 

Carl Jarvis