I've been pretty silent on the gun debate. I know what I think, and I kind of thought that was enough. But a passionate friend of mine posted a comment on his facebook this morning that got me thinking. He referenced an article where a man went into a Target and stabbed some people, and asked will anti-knife people start a campaign to keep people from carrying knives, or will they limit the length of a blade in jest?
I really do not see the similarities to that and a gun. All I could think was that no gun was used, and people are hurt but still ALIVE! Sure it could have been worse and people could have died. But they didn't. Had the man used a gun instead, it's pretty certain there would have been at least one death if not more.
Now, my issues aren't that I want to keep guns out of American's hands. I do think we have a right to defend ourselves. However, I have some problems with two things. 1. The mental health system in the US is deplorable. The mentally ill shouldn't have access to guns. It won't always be prevented, but something needs to be done to help these people, to try to get them better. And 2. Why on earth do you need a semi-automatic or high capacity weapon? Seriously, what on earth could you possibly need that for? For target shooting? For hunting? For protection? This is what I would call overkill. Forgive the pun. It just isn't necessary. But, Leslie, what if I had to overthrow the government because of a dictator? Well, we live in a democracy where the president can be voted out every 4 to 8 years. So no one person can be in control longer than 8 years. Soooooo where is that dictator?
Those are my general thoughts. I could go into more detail about individual incidents, but that would take all day.
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