Guns are a tricky issue, because so many people feel passionately about them. I live in a country with strict gun control laws, and I have never lived in a country with the constitutional right to carry weapons, so I cannot really compare anything. But I do know that criminals in this country are surely armed, and armed to the teeth, it would seem. In Australia, a bunch of rocket launchers and other weapons were stolen from an army depot a few years ago (
link). With things like this going on, I do not really feel safe. I don't know whether personally owning a gun would make me feel better, because I am fearful of all weapons, but I can see how a gun in the right hands could improve the safety of families.
An important point (much like your point #20) that I like to bear in mind is this: blaming guns for murder is unreasonable, because they are inanimate. Although they are a weapon, and many are largely designed to kill or injure living things (or paper targets
), blaming a weapon for murder vindicates criminals. Like Hondo sagely said, one cannot blame matches for arson, and similarly, one cannot blame alcoholic drinks for drunk driving offenses.
Some of these points (such as point #21) remind me of a quote from a movie I like,
V For Vendetta: "People should not be afraid of their government. The government should be afraid of its people."
As for the quote about illegal immigrants, I agree in principal, excepting one other small factor. A plaque inside the Statue of Liberty is inscribed with a poem called
The New Colossus, and it reads:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883 I find that this is at odds with the process of legal immigration into the United States, and the limitations put thereon. I've tried applying for a green card (although they're apparently not green any more!
) through their lottery system, and the chances of winning are very slim. But I'm not a citizen of the United States, or even a visitor, so I should not really criticise. But I do yearn to breathe free.
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thoughts on guns (Read 645 times)
