Why We Don't Need Gun Control

        A pretty hot-button topic in this country right now is the argument over whether there should be strict gun control laws or not. In my opinion, there shouldn’t be a need for such a discussion at all. My views on this may be popular with some and unpopular with others, but it’s just how I feel.

            So, the question is: Should there be strict gun control laws in this country? My answer? No. Having laws that prevent people from buying guns won’t prevent anything from happening. If you make guns illegal in this country, the people that have guns strictly for protection or hunting (which some people do for food to live, remember) will be left shit out of luck, while those that want to use guns for more nefarious purposes will still be able to get them illegally, just like any other illegal thing in the world.

            Let me give an example. What are some things that are illegal in this country? Cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, LSD. Those are only a few of the things that are supposedly illegal and not allowed anywhere in this country. Well, guess what, they’re still very much available. Every single one of the illegal drugs in this country can be easily accessed by anyone that knows where to get them. The simple act of making something illegal does absolutely nothing to stop people from getting their grubby little hands on it. In fact, it makes it even easier to acquire illegal substances than legal ones. Do you think a dope dealer checks someone’s ID to make sure they are of an adult age when buying smack on the corner of the street in some seedy neighborhood? No, no they do not. So, by that logic, anyone of any age would technically be able to buy guns illegally if they can get in contact with the right people. Illegality of an illicit item is only a political cop-out for higher ups that simply don’t want to deal with something anymore.

            Now let’s say that the men of Congress really are idiotic enough to make it so that guns are illegal in this country, just for the sake of argument. What would happen to the thousands of guns in America that so many people already own? Would they suddenly become wanted fugitives for knowingly possessing illegal contraband? Would they be arrested? Would their guns be taken away from them? If any of these is the case, I think I’d prefer to live in the worlds of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 or Orwell’s 1984 (or even Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, at least that universe sounds kind of fun). Making something illegal that tens of thousands of people are already in possession of would create such a shit storm of anarchy, rebellion, and mayhem that we very well could end up in another revolution. I think anyone with even a partial brain can realize that no one can afford that. And, if they do illegalize guns and decide the best solution to rid them of all of the gun-owning Americans is to take those people’s guns away, I guarantee there would be more problems than you can even imagine. The reason for that being the simple fact that it would violate the constitution on which this very country was founded on. The second amendment is the right to bear arms. The right to bear arms. Do you know what that means? I’ll give you a hint; it isn’t the right to have a pair of bear arms hanging on your wall. The last part of that law is that this right will not be infringed. For those of you that haven’t read a book recently, it means that the government can’t fucking change it, no exceptions, end of story.

            Some of you are probably thinking: Well, guns aren’t safe to have with a child in the house. Bullshit. The only reasons that guns wouldn’t be safe near a child would be if:

1-     The child had access to the weapon. If you have a gun and you are a parent with a child or children living in your house with you, keep it locked up, plain and simple. It really isn’t difficult.

2-     The parents hadn’t taught the child anything about gun safety. If you think that your child or children may not be safe in the house with a gun, then tell them about gun safety. When I was in school, it was a requirement for teachers to show us a gun safety video up until about middle school. There was nothing in these videos damning guns or saying that they were evil or the causes of any problems. That’s because they weren’t. Fuck, I remember once at summer camp when they had a cop come in and he told us that if we even had a fake gun that looked real and we pointed it at him, he would have no choice but to assume it was real and draw his weapon. He didn’t say he would shoot, just that he would have to take his gun out and tell us to put ours down. I hate to use a clichéd line like this, but guns don’t kill people, psychopaths kill people with guns. If a child finds a gun in their house and accidentally injures or kills either themselves or someone else, I’m sorry to be the one to point this out, but it’s the parents’ fucking faults.

        I’ll use an example of how guns help people for those of you that still don’t get it. Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that guns were made illegal. Now let’s say that someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night armed with a .12 gauge shotgun and says he’s going to blast everyone in the house to see if all blood is the same shade of red. What do you do, say, “hey, you can’t have that! Guns are illegal!” and then he’ll realize this, throw his gun away, and go home? No. What’s going to happen is, you’re going to get you’re oh-so-politically-correct head blown off. So is everyone that lives with you, children included. If you had a gun of your own, that little situation could end quite differently and to your benefit. But, since you’re thinking of the children and all of the evils that guns do, there’s a lunatic painting pictures on your living room wall with a few different shades of red.

        So, if you think that guns are a bad thing because of what they can do, you’re fucking clueless. Guns can’t do shit unless you make them do shit. The people that have the guns but don’t use them the right way are the problem, not the inanimate objects that you morons have labeled as evil.