The Moral has really stepped into the shit pot now. I’ve decided to talk about guns. I do find the dichotomy slightly interesting: one topic that I learned very early to never discuss was religion. No matter what your stance is on religion, I think most reasonable people can agree it’s rooted in harmony and living together with the fellow person. It’s the application of it that people get all crazy about. If religion is rooted in harmony, let’s be honest, guns are rooted in violence. Firing a bullet is meant to cause harm to whatever it’s aimed at. It’s the application of them that people get all crazy about. So, on one hand we can’t talk rationally about something rooted in harmony, but we also can’t talk about something rooted in violence. I’ve decided to discuss one of them.
I am NOT trying to talk anyone into thinking, believing, or acting the way I do. It’s your life; think whatever the hell you want. If you’re still reading this, you have to at least be somewhat interested in what I have to say. If it doesn’t turn out how you want, I love logical discourse, but feel free to keep any “hate mail” to yourself.
Privately I’ve stated to my wife that I don’t understand all the gun debate in America. I see 2 reasons to own a firearm. The first is for personal defense and the second is for those that like to hunt. There’s no reason to argue the merits of either. Those are just the 2 logical, massively accepted reasons to own guns. What’s necessary for defense and hunting? Handguns and different forms of rifles or shotguns, I would think. You’ll have to excuse my ignorance as I’m not a hunter if I forgot anything. I, personally, don’t see the need for any semi automatic assault type weapons for either.
I may not always agree, but I do listen to other view points. Sometimes I learn something that way. To that end, I watched the video of Piers Morgan interview with Alex Jones. I know he has a different stance than mine (to put it mildly) and was curious what he had to say. He argued, that “1776 will commence again” if the government tries to take his guns and mentioned drones. I don’t have to agree with him to believe that HE believes his weapons are necessary to defend himself from our own government.
I really and truly pondered the validity of his argument. Should people arm themselves against the very government they live under? We see it going on daily in Syria. Hell, we had our own Civil War just 150 years ago. Quite possibly it’s not as irrational of a thought as everyone makes it out to be. The more I thought about it, I came to a couple of realizations:
- Given that we elect our own leaders and governors, who’s to blame when you don’t like who’s in charge?
- The United States doesn’t force anyone to stay; you’re free to leave if you want
- Living in true fear to the point you feel the need to arm yourself against your own government must be incredibly unsettling and disconcerting
The more I thought about it, the more I actually felt sorry for Alex Jones. The guy really lives in fear of the government. I know he has a radio show and with the internet the way it is, I bet he could broadcast from any location in the world. I think he’d be happier if he lived in Switzerland. He did mention that was the only other country that they haven’t taken the guns. He would be able to live without a daily fear of our government. No, I’m not being condescending, I feel bad for anyone that lives with that kind of fear.
As for me, I don’t like most of what our government does anymore. I don’t feel the need to defend myself though. I do believe in the Constitution. I respect the 2nd Amendment. I also respect the 1st Amendment. It doesn’t mean I get to go into a crowded theater and yell fire. It’s been logically determined that freedom of speech doesn’t mean that too. Yelling fire is just meant to injure others. It impacts others rights more than my own. I think people who cite the 2nd Amendment for their right to own an AR-15 are much closer to yelling “fire” than exercising Constitutional freedom.
I’ve included the video from the interview so you can watch and reach your own conclusions as to the validity of Alex Jones’s argument for yourself.
The moral of the story is, sometimes you have to talk about stuff you don’t want to and thank you for letting me do so.
I’ve thought about writing about this, but you just said everything better than I could. I’m not against guns. But I think guns have become a sort of religion to some people, and when religion and tools of violence get together…
I really struggled in deciding to write about this, mainly because it’s so divisive. I decided that it’s easy to talk about stuff without ever offering an opinion that people might disagree with. I have an open format here and the ability to share what I think about a variety of topics. The limits of what’s “out of bounds” is only in my own head.
It’s tougher to really consider opposite view points when I’ve already decided how I feel about something. I do believe that Alex Jones believes what he says. To that end I made myself consider it. If I want to talk about big boy topics, I have to approach it like a big boy.
Mike your blog was an interesting read and I agree with you that semi-automatic rifles may seem unnecessary to some. But consider this men love their video games and what if the government decided to outlaw violent video games this would draw an uproar from a large population of America. Now take men who grew up hunting and using guns, to them an AR-15 is like a new version of Modern Warfare. Its a bigger toy so they can shoot. Most American gun owners are not going around mass murdering people. And those that do can get guns legal or not. So to make this point short there are many evils in this world and the government cannot restrict them all to protect the population why pick on Guns?
Another point you made was the constitutional aspect. The militias were formed and Arms were taken up against a tyrannical government that was England. The founders believed that an unjust government could and should be removed by the people because the people were what make up a nation. And yes we still live in a democracy and elect our leaders, but these leaders are more committed to special interest groups and party agendas than the people. This goes against what are republic was created to be. The media also dictates American political thought and they do not properly vet those who run for American office. How can good leaders be chosen when the American voter is grossly uneducated about American government and politics. This is how we end up with a celebrity president. So I do not fault JOnes for his mistrust of the government.
Megan,
Thank you for taking the time to read and for sharing your thoughts. You do bring up a different point of view and I appreciate you taking the time to do so. I wish I knew what the right answer was to all this. While we discuss issues such as this, the harsh reality is that we have a serious violence problem. Wishing we didn’t is something I think we can both agree on!
I hope you’ll come back and visit The Moral again.