"The first thing I ask “peaceniks” who advocate gun control: Are you planning on voting to send armed government officials out as your agents to seize guns and kill those who refuse to comply? How can you be in favor of ‘peace” and send out armed thugs to do your political will? You are not a pacifist. You are merely squeamish, and want someone else to murder others for you." - Kristopher
"I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it." - Dwight Eisenhower
"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." - Mahatma Gandhi
“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I post these quotes, not because I don't have an original thought, but because who am I, when these men are well known, and have the same thought? I used to fear guns. I hated them. Then, I took a gun disarm seminar at my martial art school. I panicked, I freaked out. My sensei pulled me aside and said to me, "You don't have to fear guns. A gun is just a tool, like a hammer. Fear the person using the tool." I have since learned about guns, made my peace with the tool, and use it. I make the equation that a gun is like a car. So many people drive cars. When you drive anywhere, you watch out for foolish drivers - when you use a gun, you watch out for other people who use their guns foolishly. Those who drive in a destructive, negligent way or cause harm to others suffer the consequences of their actions, the laws help protect the law-abiding drivers. Shouldn't gun control be the same way? Gun control should be laws to protect those of us who are law-abiding gun owners, not the other way around.
My friend Anne commented: Gun control does not equate to pacifism, nor does one need to be in favor of armed thugs. Just the opposite. You know I love guns, but gun control, in my interpretation, is a way to license and track guns and their owners, much as we do cars and their drivers. Magazine and automatic limits on guns seem to make equivalent sense to speed limits for cars.
ReplyDeleteTo which I reply: I agree with Anne's analogy that guns are just like cars, that people need to be smart with both tools. I don't think that there should be limits on guns. I am against licensing of guns and putting limits on magazines (or even fully automatic weapons). I think there needs to be limits on people. You have the right to self protection and self preservation, but you don't have the right to be stupid about it. Gun control, therefore, is more about setting limits on people who use the tools, than limiting the tool itself. Like cars, they have the potential to go very fast, but the limits are put on people to be smart about controlling the tool. Peace is a nonviolent concept in a very violent world, and I think that it's a state of mind, like MLK said, a means to an end. Peace is the idea that I control the use of my gun (my tool, like a sword or a spear or a car) for good purposes, not to purposely bring harm to others without just cause.