By Harry Droiter—
Gun control activists are given new ammunition every time there is a horrible shooting somewhere in America, which they can exploit to gain political victory. While everyone can agree that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a horrible gut wrenching event, and tears well up in anyone with a soul seeing little children asking for the help of adults so that this cannot happen again, we must as the adults take a look at this topic rationally and not emotionally.
America was born out of the enlightenment. Our founding fathers, using reasoned thought, have given us certain inalienable rights, given to us by our creator, not by our government. The government cannot take away the right of gun ownership because it is not their right, it is ours.
The government is not trying to take away all guns just the “assault weapons” and there is a wellspring of support for the government to do something so that this horror will never happen again. It is quite understandable for the general citizenry to expect our government to protect us.
What is an assault weapon? The average American, who does not own a weapon, would reasonably look at the pictures of scary looking military style weapons that the governing officials present as assault weapons, and think that any citizen can walk into a shop and purchase a military weapon. This is just not the case. Machine guns are already illegal and have been for a long time. The scary looking guns are just that, scary looking. They shoot the same as a hunting rifle. They shoot one round every time the trigger is pulled.
What does anyone need an assault rifle? No one goes hunting with an assault rifle. First it is the Bill of Rights and not the bill of needs. The rights of the citizens of the U.S. are not up for debate. However, if the people of the U.S. want to make guns illegal, then there is a perfectly acceptable way to go about doing that. It is called the amendment process.
Secondly, the second amendment was not written for hunters, or sportsmen, or target shooters, or gun collectors. It was written for the people to protect themselves. Who they need to protect themselves from is not to be questioned. Whether it is to protect themselves from a tyrannical government or an intruder is irrelevant. The truth of the matter is the overwhelming majority of gun owners do respect the laws and live their lives in peace.
If someone is going to break the law by killing, then why would they hesitate to break the law of gun ownership? Therefore, any new law would be irrelevant and ineffective.
The horror of mass killings is incontrovertible. No one wants to ever see another Sandy Hook. But, the restriction of weapons that law abiding citizens use to protect themselves will not save a single life. In fact, it will put more people at risk.
