Politicians hammered by the NRA – CNN.com
The gun control debate is so exhausted i might as well talk about abortion or the moral aspects of the death penalty, but it’s exhausted because each side focuses on the same aspect over and over without truly seeing their opponents take. Debating is an extremely difficicult skill and one aspect that i am adamently in favor of is full research on the opposite of what you believe. We do this all the time during the day, when you argue in favor of something you tell why you’re right and they’re wrong and almost 90% of the time we all have corrupt and flat out wrong information about the flip side. This means that we need to spend as much time researching what we don’t believe in to be sure that we still believe in the things we do. For example, a Christian should take the time to learn about Budhism and Atheism and Hiduism so that they can make a complete and informed decision about their own religion. On the flip side, Atheists and others should really dive into Christianity so that they can understand the other side.
Look at me going into religion. Anyways…
When you boil gun control down it comes down to one focal point, the good ol’ second amendment. However it should be interpreted, it still says plain and simple that we have the right to bear arms (we should also arm bears but that’s another argument). Now, no one buys guns based on the second amendment alone. I’ve never met anyone who bought a gun solely on the fact that the second amendment allows them to, there’s another factor and the second amendment allows them to fullfill this other factor. The three basic reasons we [Americans] buy guns are:
1) For sport (probably the most legitimate reason)
2) To hunt (outdated for 99% of the country, but some people do need to)
3) To protect the family (the most common, and most argued)
When you look at these three reasons, none of them require automatic weapons and that’s the argument here today. Automatic weapons account for almost (if not) all mass shootings in the last 25 years. So why do we need them? Most sport shooters use rifles, shotguns or hand guns because automatic weapons are so hard to control. Hunters use almost exclusively rifles because of their accuracy (and so they have less shot to pick out of their meat). And i’m pretty sure an AK-47 is overkill to protect your family, when a rifle, shotgun, or even a simple pistol can protect you.
I rarely have heard of cases where someone’s house is broken into by a man with an assault rifle, the typical burglar has a hand gun (if any, since their goal is to rob no kill). So it seems that if you want to protect your family, a shotgun can protect you enough. Now whether or not having a loaded weapon in your house is a good idea to me is another matter entirely.
So gun control advocates, let’s shift our focus entirely to automatic weapons because those are really the issue.
Mr. Bureaucrat 