Gun Control or Just Control?

​The most recent school and church shootings have most people talking about gun control. The “If you don’t believe that we need gun control, then you are part of the problem” mindset is running rampant through the social networks. 

     The guns used in these shootings and every other shooting are pieces of steel, wood, and plastic. Without a finger on their trigger, they can do no harm. But what if someone puts a finger on that trigger? If they are like 99.9% of us, absolutely nothing. 

      I’ve carried a gun all of my adult life. I’ve never shot anyone, committed a crime, or left one where my children could get to it. 

      I grew up with several guns in the house. My dad explained to me when I was very young what guns could do, and what he’d do to me if I ever touched one without his permission. 

      Gun control isn’t about controing guns. It’s about control. Take this excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

     When you say the government is not the reason for the second amendment, you don’t quite understand what that excerpt means. It literally means if the government is trying to take away your God given rights, you should dissolve and replace that system with a true government of the people, for the people, and by the people. 

      The first time it was done and the last time it was attempted, guns were used. The Revolutionary War fought an oppressive government and installed the one we have now. The founding fathers warned the country that sometimes a revolution is needed to be truly free.

      Our government was put to the test during the Civil War. It survived. The Civil War dead far outweighed all other death tolls. Americans paid a heavy price to remain Americans. With the weapons we have today, we as a country probably wouldn’t survive another civil war.  Most supporters of the second amendment would rather die with a gun in their hand than lay that gun at the feet of the government officials that want to take it away from them. 

      Let’s forget taking away guns. Let’s put guards in schools. Require protection at grocery stores and churches. Stores are quite willing to pay for security guards at Christmas to deter shoplifting.  Make this a requirement year round. Hire unemployed veterans to guard these places. 

     Let’s deter shooters. Put guns in their faces. You can’t take guns away from criminals, but you can make an evil coward behind a gun  afraid to use it because he might not get a shot off before getting shot himself. 

     If there is a shooter after all this is in place, give that murderer a number and allow no news service to use anything but that number to identify that murderer. Let’s stop making killers famous. Let’s make them numbers and nothing else.