Too Many Guns?

I wish I was smarter. I wish I could wrap myself around some of the difficult thoughts circulating around my nation right now, especially those concerning the availability of devices of mass destruction. I just don’t feel smart enough to understand why so many are opposed to any new effort to restrict the proliferation and sale of assault weapons. Aren’t there enough around? Aren’t there enough of these weapons stashed in private collections, in military war chests, and in the possession of law enforcement officials? Don’t warlords and gun collectors have enough? Aren’t there enough on the Earth? 

We often have the conversation about the concern that there are too many nuclear weapons…. and big smart countries have taken steps to limit them in our sphere and keep them hidden. 

Assault weapons are fairly easy item. They are local. They are in the neighborhood. Wouldn’t management be a little easier? They don’t get too old quickly. Unlike radiation, they are only poisonous when someone points at someone and pulls the trigger. How many do we need to feel safe?  

There was a report recently that there are as many guns in this country as there are people. The paradigm has changed. I think with this kind of growth of guns there will be more guns than ovens, more guns than computers and maybe more guns than cell phones. Ovens, computers and cell phones have a life expectancy of a few years. They are tossed away when they are old and replaced. 

But all guns work. They never get tired or out of popularity. All guns have a life expectancy that is longer than their owner.  

Were we safe when there were guns around? Or, in more recent times, are we no longer feeling safe with so many of them around. 

Isn’t there a saturation point, a moment in time when there are enough out there in my town and in your town. Don’t we all think the human race has enough? 

I don’t see it as a constitutional issue. Our forefathers weren’t trying to sell guns, like these boys are now. Our forefathers weren’t trying to protect the rights of people owning weaponry that could kill the lives of innocent people faster than pitter patter of a heart. Those creators of government policy years ago, weren’t thinking of limiting access to grenades. Had grenades been available two hundred years ago, would you and I today have a right to bare arms with even more savage weaponry? 

I am not smart enough to understand the logic behind making so many weapons accessible to bad people. 

Shouldn’t it be harder for someone who has the gumption to scare authorities and my neighbors, to get a gun…. Shouldn’t it be harder for them to get a gun than me? 

I don’t understand why more public safety folks aren’t clamoring that there are too many military weapons accessible out there. 

Oh. For sure there are finer points to their reasoning for access to killing machines. Yes, and they are all meaningful. And I can hear the logic. But when the talking stops, I still would like to understand why we have to have so many guns available right now to deranged gun buyers, even people who are enemies to us. Shouldn’t there be more restrictions, maybe something like a hard earned license? Automobile drivers need to qualify for a driver’s license? Is it not a privilege earned, not a right? Shouldn’t we be more serious about this? 

And add to this, we’d like a voice all of us can trust. We’d like someone who’d speak well of humanity, government for the people by the people, especially after this harmful behavior has shaken all of us. 

Wouldn’t it be forward thinking if we got help from those out there who already have their gun? Wouldn’t it be in everyone’s interest if there was a way… for everyone to own a solution or group of solutions.