Guns, and my most recent Facebook Post.
December 5, 2015 at 6:55 pm
(This post was last modified: December 5, 2015 at 7:01 pm by Spooky.)
To my Atheist friends,
Many of you are Anti-Gun, in fact, both in real life and online I've noticed that a very large percentage of Atheists seem to be quite anti-gun. Which is fine. We're all free thinkers and that's why I like you. Hive mind is boring.
But when I hear Anti-Gun, what I'm really hearing is Anti-Violence. I'll go on record as saying that I am, for the most part, Anti-Violence. I am however, decidedly not a pacifist. If you make an attempt on mine or my wife's life, you can expect an equal-or greater-and opposite reaction.
The NRA is fucking ridiculous. There, I said it. I don't believe every citizen should be allowed to have any gun. I'd be kicked out of the club for saying such a thing, but to be so vehemently against hearing anybody else's opinion is just not the way. They're extremists, and it saddens me that that's the best some pro-gun people will have.
In the case for guns, I ask you:
What is the purpose of a weapon?
Most people's first answer to that question is "Duh, to kill...". This answer is simply wrong. The purpose of a weapon?
To gain an Advantage.
While some guns are designed as weapons, so are many knives, vehicles, and even pens. (Benchmade has some interesting weaponized pens). Nobody picks up a Gun, Knife, Chair, Baseball bat, etc. because they're looking for a fair fight. The Drill Instructors in Basic told me "If you find yourself in a fair fight, you fucked up".
I shot competitive trap back home, the purpose of my shotgun was to break little clay disks. I owned a .22 rifle, its purpose was to punch holes in paper and the occasional aluminum can. The .243's purpose was to hunt deer. (And kill them in a much more humane manner than many meat packing plants can boast). Somebody living in Alaska/Montana/Utah/Colorado might own a firearm to protect themselves and their family from Bears. (Pepper/Bear spray may not be 100% effective). Yes there is a extra requirement of attention and maturity required for firearms lest you put yourself or your family in danger, but the same could be said of cars, boats, and medications. (And a myriad of other things) I don't have any statistics at the ready, but I'd hazard a guess that Cars, Boats, & over the counter medications such as aspirin individually account for a comparable number of accidental deaths.
The KABAR knife I kept in my car? Kept solely for its potential to give me an advantage. Honestly the only "weapons" I own are my knives. I tend to carry them more, and not just to open my mail.
The recent firearms related tragedies we've seen in the news are just that...tragic. I won't argue that. It's terrible, and in my opinion, possibly preventable. But banning guns outright is simplistic and simply wont solve this problem.
Take it from somebody your government gave formal training to in order kill his fellow man. We're fragile creatures, a couple holes in the goo and you're meeting -insert belief system here-. Taking away one method, isn't really going to do much to stop us from ending each other. (Sadly)
The Boston Marathon? No firearms involved if I recall. What's the purpose of a pressure cooker? I thought it was to make soup. My affiliation with the US Army Ordnance Corps should mean something when I tell you that bombs are stupid easy to make. (And scare the shit out of me). Ban guns? Sure. Ban pressure cookers? Good luck. Mass killings are an unfortunate side effect of our population and the prevalence of mental illness. (Or religion, but they're pretty much the same thing.) I will grant you that guns can make such things easier, and no, I don't mean high capacity magazine. Accuracy is more important than capacity any day. I will mention that a janitor in Osaka Japan did a better job in 2001 with a kitchen knife then some americans I've seen with guns. (no ninja jokes)
Is there an answer or a cure to this need some of us have to kill each other? Possibly, but I don't have it. But I will say we're going to have a bitch of a time stopping it. And that if guns were banned outright, gun deaths would quite logically go down, but some other methods would without question go up.
I am Pro-Gun and Anti-Violence. I do not believe these to be mutually exclusive.
Many of you are Anti-Gun, in fact, both in real life and online I've noticed that a very large percentage of Atheists seem to be quite anti-gun. Which is fine. We're all free thinkers and that's why I like you. Hive mind is boring.
But when I hear Anti-Gun, what I'm really hearing is Anti-Violence. I'll go on record as saying that I am, for the most part, Anti-Violence. I am however, decidedly not a pacifist. If you make an attempt on mine or my wife's life, you can expect an equal-or greater-and opposite reaction.
The NRA is fucking ridiculous. There, I said it. I don't believe every citizen should be allowed to have any gun. I'd be kicked out of the club for saying such a thing, but to be so vehemently against hearing anybody else's opinion is just not the way. They're extremists, and it saddens me that that's the best some pro-gun people will have.
In the case for guns, I ask you:
What is the purpose of a weapon?
Most people's first answer to that question is "Duh, to kill...". This answer is simply wrong. The purpose of a weapon?
To gain an Advantage.
While some guns are designed as weapons, so are many knives, vehicles, and even pens. (Benchmade has some interesting weaponized pens). Nobody picks up a Gun, Knife, Chair, Baseball bat, etc. because they're looking for a fair fight. The Drill Instructors in Basic told me "If you find yourself in a fair fight, you fucked up".
I shot competitive trap back home, the purpose of my shotgun was to break little clay disks. I owned a .22 rifle, its purpose was to punch holes in paper and the occasional aluminum can. The .243's purpose was to hunt deer. (And kill them in a much more humane manner than many meat packing plants can boast). Somebody living in Alaska/Montana/Utah/Colorado might own a firearm to protect themselves and their family from Bears. (Pepper/Bear spray may not be 100% effective). Yes there is a extra requirement of attention and maturity required for firearms lest you put yourself or your family in danger, but the same could be said of cars, boats, and medications. (And a myriad of other things) I don't have any statistics at the ready, but I'd hazard a guess that Cars, Boats, & over the counter medications such as aspirin individually account for a comparable number of accidental deaths.
The KABAR knife I kept in my car? Kept solely for its potential to give me an advantage. Honestly the only "weapons" I own are my knives. I tend to carry them more, and not just to open my mail.
The recent firearms related tragedies we've seen in the news are just that...tragic. I won't argue that. It's terrible, and in my opinion, possibly preventable. But banning guns outright is simplistic and simply wont solve this problem.
Take it from somebody your government gave formal training to in order kill his fellow man. We're fragile creatures, a couple holes in the goo and you're meeting -insert belief system here-. Taking away one method, isn't really going to do much to stop us from ending each other. (Sadly)
The Boston Marathon? No firearms involved if I recall. What's the purpose of a pressure cooker? I thought it was to make soup. My affiliation with the US Army Ordnance Corps should mean something when I tell you that bombs are stupid easy to make. (And scare the shit out of me). Ban guns? Sure. Ban pressure cookers? Good luck. Mass killings are an unfortunate side effect of our population and the prevalence of mental illness. (Or religion, but they're pretty much the same thing.) I will grant you that guns can make such things easier, and no, I don't mean high capacity magazine. Accuracy is more important than capacity any day. I will mention that a janitor in Osaka Japan did a better job in 2001 with a kitchen knife then some americans I've seen with guns. (no ninja jokes)
Is there an answer or a cure to this need some of us have to kill each other? Possibly, but I don't have it. But I will say we're going to have a bitch of a time stopping it. And that if guns were banned outright, gun deaths would quite logically go down, but some other methods would without question go up.
I am Pro-Gun and Anti-Violence. I do not believe these to be mutually exclusive.
I reject your reality and substitute my own!
" 
