Civil Nations
If you follow this blog you know that I am a gun enthusiast. I own plenty of guns. I have a gun safe, I have a beautiful hunting dog, the whole nine yards. However, you also know that I advocate reasonable gun control measures. I am willing to forfeit some freedoms in order to promote the public good. Why?
Yesterday, fourteen people were killed by a shooter in San Bernardino in another mass murder. Last week, three were killed in Colorado Springs at a Planned Parenthood center. But there are many more mass shootings than we likely track day-in-and-day-out. The following Op Ed in the New York Times recommends that there is at least one mass killing per day by shooters in the United States. I know, you may view the New York Times to be too liberal a source to trust on gun control issues. So, let’s say you refuse to believe information gleaned from the Times. But even if a mass shooting occurred every other day instead of every day and some of those shootings could be prevented through reasonable gun control measures. Well, I am in support of such measures. Are you? Read this piece, explore the graph that charts mass murders committed by people wielding guns in America, and discuss it throughout the day with friends, family, and colleagues. What conclusionsdo you draw? Does your perspective change?
Even if you are a gun enthusiast like me, I trust you will conclude that something has to give in order to curb and even negate, if possible, mass murders. I know that you are very anxious about how the word “reasonable” would be defined in a gun control debate and subsequent legislation. I know that the right to bear arms is couched in the Bill of Rights—but seriously, don’t you agree that something has to give? Read the Op Ed and let the debate continue.
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