If you get into a fight with someone on a street or a subway or a store and you have a gun on your person, your chances of using that gun are a good deal greater than if you didn’t have it. You read about this kind of thing happening all the time. Way back, years ago, I read a news story about a fight over a parking space. In this case, a driver had pulled his car up so he could back into a space on a street which was completely filled up with parked cars. A driver was pulling out. Our hero, understanding the long-accepted rules, respectfully waited his turn to pull into the soon-to-be-vacated space. Seeing an opportunity, another driver—let’s just call him an outlaw—“nose dived” into the now empty space. The driver who was calmly waiting for the space was now infuriated and entered into a verbal battle with said outlaw. When angry words didn’t suffice, the other guy went for his heavier ammunition, pulled out a gun and shot his space competitor. According to the news story, as I remember it, the guy who was shot died.
I have thought about this for years. If the shooter didn’t have a gun and just used his words or his fists, there might not have been a fatality. Right? So, let’s extrapolate this to a whole lot of other similar stories. We know that people bring guns into their communities. They import them from other states, cities, and villages.
Sometimes the use of these weapons leads to lifetime imprisonment for the perpetrator. To simplify the whole thing, if the shooter didn’t have a gun, he would not have seen his whole future life sliding downhill. But, alas, he and thousands of others did have weapons and sometimes impulsively resorted to shooting and often killing another human being. Sometimes the persons who have been killed have met their death accidentally. To reiterate, no guns no death.
Papa has a gun. Kid plays with the gun. The gun goes off accidentally. Either the kid playing with the gun and shoots himself or shoots a playmate. Don’t tell me it doesn’t happen exactly that way. It does. This whole horror show extends to so many other oft-repeated scenarios. The parents of the children to whom this has happened look back at the accident in horror. In addition to cursing themselves for not understanding the implications of gun ownership, they know that they will be paying for their stupidity for the rest of their lives.
Somehow, some way, we need to pass and enforce laws that will make it either impossible or very difficult to own a firearm. I have written about this quite frequently. Frankly, I have one fierce critic who reminds me that our most important documents make it clear that we are entitled to own guns. This is one subject that really divides Americans. To me, it is all so simple. If you own a gun, your chances of killing someone or being killed by that very gun, are just much, much greater.
So, do you have a neighbor who has a gun? Do you read newspaper stories about someone who enjoys target practice? Do you realize that when a neighbor, a friend or a relative has a gun that the potential for danger increases until it reaches a very dangerous level?
We need to put a lid on gun ownership. I don’t really understand why guns have such a cherished place in our society. Even the legislators who understand that we have to do something are too often scared out of their wits to just do what is right and outlaw guns in order to save lives.
Guns are a narcotic and we have to wean ourselves off them.
