Henry David Thoreau said ” For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.”
On Friday December 14, 2012 a man carrying a gun killed 27 people at an elementary school in Connecticut. You all have heard about. On December 11 a gunman killed two people and critically wounded one at this mall near Portland, Ore. In July, a gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 others in Aurora Colorado. We all still recall the tragic news of the thirteen people murdered in Columbine.
Fifty-five people murdered, hundreds personally and immediately terrorized, thousands of family members and friends devastated for the rest of their lives, millions across the nation wondering “How did this happen? What’s wrong with society?”
And of course the battle over gun control rages on among political elites and pseudo-sophisticates on Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the “your wrong and I will prove it” social media websites. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people!” Wahoo, we are all that much better informed now that we have been told that for the 27,000th time.
Not unaccustomed to setting myself up as an authority of things I know nothing about I will offer my opinion…as humble as it can be presented. Keep in mind I intensely disagree with the liberality with which guns are sanctioned in our society. It makes no sense to me, in light of all the specious arguments, that we justify slaughter in the name sport hunting. Worse yet is the silly person that justifies hunting with the comment “I do it for the meat” or “I do it to feed my family”. Yet, as a constitutional libertarian I whole-heartedly defend a person’s right to own, and when necessary, use their guns. For me there is no distinction regarding the make and model.
These terrorist acts are public expressions of private assumptions about the gunman’s right to have power over others. It comes from the permissiveness of exclusivity (pride, in laymen’s terms) in man’s constant pursuit of an expanded dominion.
In all of our social functions (politics, national origin, religion, education, business practices, entertainment, news reporting, ad infinitum) exclusivity is pandered to and promoted. In national politics any lie is acceptable to advance a private agenda. In entertainment (movies, books, and games) anything goes in order for the one to dominate the many, usually over something as silly as “I am angry at that person.” Two people of faith in the same savior will come to blows over their opinion that “My God’s better than your God, My God’s better than yours.” How about this one, that’s popular in the West and South, “This is my country, get the hell out!”
Some women may get irate at this comment, but the fall of the Roman Empire has been attributed to women getting equal rights/status. That is insufficient. The fall came from some members of society believing they had insufficient rights to dominate others, and those societies believed they had a duty to defend and protect such baseless assertions, just as we also now do as a nation.
Until we choose a different course, until we demand better of ourselves, our political, entertainment, media, and business leaders we can rest assured that those with legitimate universal rights will use those rights to terrorize others, assuming those rights are exclusive to themselves.
Thus, we are back again at the discussion of roots and branches.
WWWJr's Political Commentary 
I agree with most of what you said. But I like guns and I am a woman. I am going to start to carry on and I have a permit but just haven’t bothered unless I am traveling. But if someone had had a gun just maybe not as many would have been murdered. We have people that will abuse any right. We do have to make some changes because liberalism/socialism just isn’t working and it will only get worse.
You are right, the course we are on needs to be changed.
Mickie:
I believe we agree on the fundamental issue. I have had bad experiences with guns. Killed animals when I was young, and was saddened by it. I was also shot at, and but for the Grace of God would have been hit in the head. Yet, I can set my personal distaste aside for the right of others that will “hopefully” be responsible.
Liberty is of greater value than satisfying my desires at the expense of your rights.
However, this issue is not about gun control. It is truly about pandering to the idea of exclusivity of control over others. Every significant social institution we embrace as a society fosters that pandering, and have for several decades. Now we are reaping the whirlwind.
I agree with you there.
I have never had a bad experience with a gun and hope I never do.
But this Country because of how it is run is going downhill fast unless we make a change and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
I share your deep concern for the slaughter of human life. This is the most despicable act one can perpetrate upon another.
However, I see guns as a branch or leaves on the tree. Of course the root is the moral decay of our society. The gunman’s assumption of power over others is but a symptom of that decay. In my humble opinion the subject is purely moral decadence. Guns are but a means, just as knives, poisonous gases, bombs, etc.
Of course the poisonous gases and bombs in private possession are illegal and are penalized accordingly. Knives and guns are a different matter. We all know WHY the Second Amendment was given to us. At the time of the formulation of our Constitution guns were a real deterrent in the hands of godly people. But where is God? Without Him we have a big problem on our hands. In this day and age guns are not really a deterrent against a tyrannical government. We live in a much more sophisticated world today. The folks at Ruby Ridge and the Waco Compound can attest to that. However guns can be a deterrent against a riotous crowd in times of trouble and a thief in the night. I perceive that very difficult times lie ahead and we are likely to see a great deal of violence on the street.
I witnessed the fall of the government of Indonesia in 1998 and it wasn’t pretty. There were military cannons in the streets and citizens were looting and burning businesses and private homes of the wealthy. There were so many of them, the government was incapable of controlling the situation.
Most Americans believe that this could never happen here. But it could! And it can literally happen overnight. Your personal guns and ammo may keep your family from being targeted. There are enough people without weaponry that mobs move on when confronted with lethal defense.
Personally, I see any restriction put upon gun ownership as a slippery slope. That may not be true, but history seems to indicate that it might well be.
We must focus upon the root of our problems. Without a return to our moral roots, there is absolutely NOTHING that will spare us the ongoing slaughter and societal chaos.
This issue is simply not guns. Pruning the tree won’t kill the root problem.
Interesting comments… something tells me that we are still avoiding the core issues of this phenomena….the columbine effect.
I think it is possible that there is an undercurrent of revolution going on (revolting)…. albeit nebulous and undefined….. I am slow to give the assailants the moniker of being crazy…..lest we forget….most revolutionaries from the revolutionary war, civil war, and civil rights movements were viewed as unstable if not …insane…. point of order: If there is a silent revolution going on….what are they revolting?
Well, these folks don’t seem to be the revolutionary types. They are more sadistic and evil than historical revolutionaries.
I flippantly told my grown son this morning, “Well, we raised a generation of kids teaching them that they were merely part of the animal kingdom. Now they are beginning to act the part.” Quite honestly, young people today have no spiritual moorings or personal identity. They don’t have a clue why they were born into this world. We have failed them miserably.
We no longer tell them that they are unique and superior beings, created in the very image of God. Nor do they know that they have an ordained purpose in this life. Their number one purpose is to bring glory and honor to God, who created them. They have a marvelous future awaiting them when they lern to put their trust in God. We are the crown jewel of His creation and He loves to delight HImself in us. There is no stronger relationship or fulfilling life.
How sad it is to watch men do their utmost to destroy man’s innate hunger for their Creator. Without God, there are only various levels of dispair.
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