Yes, It's One of Those Fangled Shooting Posts Again...

*sigh* Here we go again.  Just do me a favor and hear me out, because I'd be more than willing to listen to your side as well.

I know I've written about this before, but it just irks me how... sheepish like (and by that I mean anyone who just listens to what other people say without researching or thinking for themselves), ignorant... I hate to use the word stupid but it really seems to be the only word I can think of right now.  Illogical? I'm sure I could come up with more, or perhaps you could too.

"Oh come on Drain Bramage, what are you talking about??"

What am I talking about?  Last night, if you haven't heard, some douche canoe went into a black church in South Carolina (yes he was a white douche canoe) and shot a bunch of black people in their church.  And unlike a lot of these other "racist" incidents, according to some of the survivors  he actually stated his purpose was to shoot a bunch of black people.  Woah... an ACTUAL racially motivated crime!  With proof!!  See, now this I can stand behind, and will stand beside the victims and their families, and I will be crying out for justice with them!  Absolutely no one deserves to be singled out because of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. But I digress...

This actually isn't about racial tensions. That's what my last blog was about.  This is a rehash of the whole "anti-gun" issue.  'Cause you know what I just heard?  Obama standing up there talking about how the wrong people got guns or whatever blah blah blah I'm blaming guns blah blah blah it's the guns fault blah blah blah."  So again I ask you, dear readers, to answer me a question.  When is the last time you've witnessed a gun getting up from its resting place, exit the home or wherever it happens to be residing (I say residing because apparently guns are sentient beings), leave, and go kill a bunch of people on its own?  Oh right, it's never happened in reality.

Now, before anyone gets their knickers in a bunch, let me say something.  I know there are people who live outside of the US that for whatever reason, seem to think Americans have a love affair with guns.  That we caress them and whisper sweet nothings into their... screws?? *scratches head*  It's not so much about the guns as it is our freedoms.  If anyone stopped to think for a moment, the majority, and by majority I mean the greater majority, of gun owners do not nor have they ever used their weapons to harm another person willingly nor used them to commit a crime.  Do you know who does that?  If you said criminals, I owe you a cupcake or something.  So please answer me, how exactly does taking guns out of the hands of people whom have never used them to harm others nor commit any crimes, going to do anything to stop shootings?

Think about that for a second. Seriously, I mean stop, repeat it in your head if you have to, but really think about this.  Who uses guns, knives, whatever to hurt other people or commit crimes?  Say it with me now... c... cri... crimin... criminals!!  (obviously the sarcasm doesn't apply to you lovely people who at least understand that guns or knives or whatever are not sentient beings.)  Who else?  Psycho/sociopaths and/or people with mental issues.  Ok, now that we have that covered, please explain to me how removing guns or any sort of weapon whatsoever is going to solve this problem, when the majority of people who own weapons indeed do not, nor have they ever used them to harm another or commit a crime?  If you said because the wrong people end up taking the guns from the "good guys" (people who follow the law and do not harm others) you should probably get your head examined because that follows the same logic as banning cars because drunk people can use them to drive and kill people.

The thing is though, if guns were outlawed, do you honestly think criminals would stop in their tracks and be like "oh my! Guns are illegal!!  Quick, guys, we need to get rid of all of our guns 'cause they're illegal now!!"  If you said yes... you do not understand what a criminal is.  They don't follow the law.  They don't care about the law.  Some of them don't even care who gets hurt or killed if it in any way inconveniences them. I do recognize not all criminals want to hurt people as there are varying degrees.  Even Russians have told us to not give up our guns. Proof! 

Now, if you look at actual, credible crime statistics, you will see that in areas in the US where citizens are more freely allowed to own firearms, crime is less than say, areas that have disarmed their citizens.  And by credible statistics I'm talking things like, the FBI crime statistic database, not some "study" Joe Schmoe did with no verifiable data and instead is bent to what he/she wants you to see.

Also keep in mind, I do not own any guns and this is how I see things. Does that make me right?  No.  But it doesn't make me wrong either.  If you're a criminal, are you going to rob the house where there's a family that owns firearms, or the one where the people are left undefended... except for maybe a baseball bat or something?

But wait... getting rid of guns will stop mass killings right?  Let's examine an event from a country in which their citizens are disarmed!!  In China in March of 2014, an attack occurred that left 33 dead and 143 people wounded.  Must have been guns right?  Wrong! Knives my friends... knives.  That's quite the toll isn't it?  I do also believe that's generally far more violent and deadly than a lot of our "mass shootings" that have happened in the US yes?  And all they had were knives.

All I'm trying to say dear friends is this: When you are treating any kind of "disease" (and I don't mean in the literal sense), you cannot succeed by just putting a band-aid on the situation, you have to treat the root or it will just resurface or develop a resistance to antibiotics or something.  The root isn't guns, it's people. Any one of these "mass shootings", which if you really think about it, they don't really happen often, they're just the ones that make the news.  Fewer people die in mass shootings than other related deaths I'd imagine.  The mass shootings, however, typically are done by people with diagnosed or suspected mental illness and they were somehow able to obtain a firearm.  Now, is that due to poor screening?  I wouldn't doubt that or discount it as a possibility.  Do they obtain the firearms from people they know? Well the person who was responsible for the Connecticut school shootings got his from his mother's apparently.  Is that the gun's fault?  Nope.

So how do we fix this?  Better screening?  I'm down for it. A tricky part may be getting around the doctor/patient confidentiality stuff HIPAA laws and violations.  Perhaps making a way to flag those who pose a danger to themselves or others would be surely helpful, but not leaving it up to the discretion of one doctor.  Better education?  Perhaps requiring a certificate from a course gun owners and potential gun owners can take in firearm safety and storage before a new purchase could be a good idea.

One thing I am confident of is that the answer to this "disease" is not outright banning all firearms, because that would be about as effective as banning all cars to stop drunk driving.  Because once again, nearly every mass shooting in the US involved people who did not obtain the firearms themselves, or somehow managed (in very few of the cases) to skirt around any sort of screening.  Criminals do not follow the law, they find ways around it.  Those who wish to do others harm will find a way, whether it's firearms, knives in China, they'll make bombs as with Oklahoma City, they'll poison something... if they want to harm they will find a way, with or without firearms.  Just use some logic, that's all I ask.  I get that it's easier and makes people feel safer to blame an object than accept the fact that there are people out there who are sick in the head.  It's much scarier to think or accept the fact that there are people out there who are really that "evil", vs putting blame on an inanimate object.