I must admit I feel a tad irritated that I even have to predict or defend the theory that guns cause shootings. If more people used their brains to think instead of Rap with the Radio, the world would have several million fewer people that qualify as Idiots.
When today's ignoble shooting all sorts out, it won't be because the man was of Middle Eastern heritage; it won't be because he was a psychiatrist (the profession with the highest suicide rate), or because he wanted to "spare" these soldiers of the horrors of war that he studied in his "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Soldiers Returning from War Zones." Ultimately, it will be blamed, not on human nature (or, also called, "human depravity"), but it will be blamed on Guns.
Even as we speak, my sister-in-law argues that even if the people at Ft. Hood had had guns, the gunner would have killed and/or wounded just as many people. She, and many people believe, that the gun caused the problem, and that the fact that the dead and wounded who were unarmed, could not have affected the outcome of the shooting.
Every state that allows citizens to carry weapons (Concealed Handgun Licenses, CHL) has lower violent crime rates than those states that don't. The gunner at Ft. Hood knew that every person on that base, other than the Police (including Civilian and Military Police), would be unarmed and completely defenseless. The soldiers, although trained, are not allowed to carry munitions on base, by Federal Law.
The CHL law was implemented in Texas after the 1993 shooting by a man who drove his truck into a Luby's Cafeteria in Temple, Texas and opened fire on the customers. A female doctor, who had to leave her gun in her car due to state laws, survived, but her parents were gunned down. When she testified before our State Legislature in support of CHL, she said that the man was fearless as he shot one person after another, and reloaded. She also said that if she, or any other person in the cafeteria had had a gun, the casualties would have been far fewer.
Shortly thereafter, Governor George W. Bush put forth a Concealed Handgun Law (1995) that is the most strict in the nation, hoping that it would be used as a model in every state. The model has spread, with some variations, among other states in the Union, and they have benefitted. I attend a CHL renewal class, pass a written test, and prove myself on the shooting range every five years in order to renew my license.
It is a shame that men, probably better trained than myself, are not allowed to carry guns on military bases. Can a rational person believe that 43 people would have been shot today if even a few of those 43, or those nearby, had been armed?
I drove a car today, and vehicles kill far more people annually than guns. If I am going to run over you, would you rather be in another vehicle, or on the street with no protection? Might it possibly affect the outcome of our encounter?
I may be crippled, but I am NOT defenseless. It is not the gun, but the idiot pulling a trigger (whatever their motivation) who is to blame. Blame the person, or their motivation, but not a gun. It is ideas, motivations of thinking and worldviews that hurt people by any intentional reason, not the inanimate object, whether knife, gun, car, club or legislation.
I am a disabled person, and that puts me in a high risk category for parking-lot robbery, especially if I use a handicapped parking slot. If I park in a handicapped parking slot, that also puts every robber-assailant that approaches me in a 100% risk-category for being shot.
Here is a question, if a citizen shoots a person, and it is the "guns fault", why is the person sent to jail, and not the gun?
Just Thinking, (especially for those who don't), The Sand Hill Philosopher
Join the NRA now, at www.NRA.org .
