no answers

 This morning my mind is just swirling with thoughts. I can't seem to focus on one thing.It's a mixture of frustration and grief. Frustrated that the same old narrative is being repeated over and over again and grief that those events took place. I am, of course, thinking about the mass shootings. Frustrated that the main stream media runs a constant stream of rhetoric fueling the outrage. Frustrated that you have to question, check and verify what is being reported. Frustrated that so many otherwise intelligent people believe that somehow, magically, all the guns in America will disappear by creating legislation. Frustrated that these same people believe if the guns were gone no one would get injured anymore! Yes, no one will get shot, that's true, if there weren't any guns, but Cain killed Abel with a rock so there's that. It's called reality. And the reality is those that wish to harm others will find a way to do so! The number, and how rapidly it can be accomplished is not the real issue. The real issue is that people are willing to do this! 

 But here we go again, it's assault rifles! What the reality is: people are using semi-automatic rifles to commit mass shootings. Handguns can also be semi-automatic but you never hear about assault pistols! Why is that? The reality is both weapons are just as lethal. Reality is a single shot rifle, pistol or shotgun are equally lethal! What is the only real difference? How rapidly you can fire the weapon. But what we hear about are assault rifles! The reality is less than 1% of all gun deaths in America occur during a mass shooting. That means less than 1% of people shot in America are shot with an assault rifle! Yet, that is what we need to ban, right? Yeah, that makes sense. The largest percentage of gun deaths occur by suicide. Out of that, the majority are committed using a pistol. So the reality is more people are killed by self inflicted pistol shots than assault rifles! That's just fact, without any opinion, any emotion, just facts. If we were to base our reaction on fact we should be banning hand guns thus saving far more lives. And isn't that the intent, to save as many lives as possible? But somehow in an amazing feat of logic we decide semi-automatic rifles are the problem. 

 It is the same knee jerk reaction as always. We need to pass immediate legislation banning assault rifles. What is it that they really want to ban? Semi-automatic rifles. Why? Because we call them assault weapons, and they are so bad. Okay, every semi-automatic rifle in America has magically disappeared. What's next? Semi-automatic handguns are just as deadly, just as capable of discharging multiple rounds into a crowd of people. We will need to make those " assault " pistols disappear as well. So you see it just isn't logical. When people are determined to cause harm, death and destruction they will choose whatever weapon or device that is available. Remember a guy named Timothy McVeigh? He killed 168 people and injured 680 others with fertilizer! Must have been that assault fertilizer sold at Southern States. My point being, this idea that we can somehow legislate the problem away is just ridiculous. You can't legislate mental health! And judging by what I'm seeing in Congress these days there is indisputable evidence of that. But I'll set that aside for now. 

 Now I don't have any answers, any more than anyone else. That's a frustration. For that reason I can understand why some would support this notion of legislation. It's a matter of doing something just to do something. I get that, I really do. I also get what the second amendment means and the reason for that. The second amendment states a right! It isn't about a pistol, shotgun or rifle. It isn't about any particular type of weapon. It is the RIGHT to keep and bear arms. What are arms? Armament is the answer. Armament is the arms and equipment of a military unit. Exactly the reason it is stated, a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arm, shall not be infringed. We the people are that militia! What was once called minutemen. And the minutemen fought against whom? In the beginning it was the enemies of the colonists, namely Indians and the French. Later that same militia, fought against the English government, their government! That's correct, the function of a well armed militia is to defend the nation against her enemies including her own government if necessary. The RIGHT to defend ourselves is enshrined in that amendment. So you see it isn't about guns, it is about rights. Surrendering your rights isn't going to prevent a thing. What it will do is enable. Enable the government to remove more of your rights as they see fit. A free state? I hardly think so. What maintains the security of a free state? The RIGHT to keep and bear arms. 

 I sure wish I knew the answer. I'n sure a great many of us wish we had an answer. All I know is removing our rights isn't the answer. It will solve nothing, prevent nothing and do nothing. Yes I'm sure someone will figure out a way to make money off of that. Maybe the government will make a task force charged with rounding up these dangerous weapons. That will give someone a job, a government job. Ideally we want everyone working for the government don't we? In that way we can control the people by legislation. And hey, what choice do we have? We surrendered the free state in favor of government control. It isn't going to stop those that wish to do harm from doing harm. I'd venture to say all it will do is force those crazy people to find a way to create even larger destruction. To become even more efficient at killing. And who will stop them? A government task force. A brief glimpse into history will show you that has been tried and what the result was. Mass killing like the world have never seen before. The government was in charge!