guns and rules

i don't get the whole guns thing.  at all.

i don't care if you have guns.  have all the guns you want.  shoot every deer and pheasant between here and mt. rushmore for all i care.  have two guns.  five.  ten even.  i. do. not. care.  but tell me why it is that a background check bears any resemblance to an infringement of your constitutional rights.  tell me why a ban on high capacity magazines and the amount of ammunition you can buy is akin to being packed naked into an overcrowded box car and shipped to a camp that will kill you.  and then tell me why--and i want a really good reason--why any civilian has any need whatsoever for military weapons (cuz i know you're not hunting with them).

from where i sit, the only thing i can come up with is paranoia.

maybe it's paranoia that the neighbor (or the neighbor's kid) is going to rob you and set your house on fire. or maybe it's fear that the government is going to come throw you out of their own home.  or both.  either way, what the fuck kind of fear is defining your life?

stop.  think about this.  could the government become so oppressive that it storms into your home and makes a slave of you and your family?   fuck. no. it. couldn't.  this country is too big, has waaaaaaay too many people, and waaaaay too strong of a standing armed forces.  and even if something powerful enough to overtake our government and army (not a even a real live socialist kenyan muslim president could pull that off) does exist, the arsenal in the basement isn't going to do shit for you.  and more likely than the government takeover, is the possibility that your arsenal could be used (accidentally or otherwise) to cause you and others great devastation.  think about that for a minute.

and then let's talk about your constitutional rights.

if you still want guns, have your guns.  but get the same kind of licensing i am required to own and operate a _car_ (this is such a "duh" for me). i mean...will people without a license be able to get a gun?  i'm sure.  but we have to start somewhere.  keeping gun ownership from the people who have proven themselves to be bad or mentally unstable (and let experts in the fields of criminals and insanity define who that it) is the smart thing to do.  making sure that people with guns are educated about them is the smart thing to do.  limiting the number of rounds in a magazine could save a life, five lives, maybe even 10 or 20.  how is that not worth the minor inconvenience to you to having to reload before blowing the guts out of the next deer that happens into the slaughter?

guns are really dangerous.  they need rules.  and, frankly, anyone objecting to reasonable gun safety rules seems pretty irrational.  and those of you vociferously objecting to gun safety rules...well, you look like a fucking whack job.

~k