Some believe in the divine nature of men yet cannot conceive of any world except one in which everyone is bristling with as many instrumentalities of death as our means allow. Yet by grasping unrestrained for ever more security, it always seems to more assiduously elude us.
That is not to infer that somehow the absence of arms will pacify our psychopaths and criminals. No, we must be prepared, but there is a balance to be struck.
The benefit of living in as disarmed a community as our natures will allows, is not so that we live in ignorance and at the mercy of the wolves who are ever present at our doors; but is with the humble understanding that even the best of us--in moments of heightened stress, extreme need or justifiable anger; and even the meekest of us—beleaguered by illness, age and ill treatment, are more able to live up to our better natures with our hands at some distance from the triggers of death and with our minds enlightened by environments that mirror the aspirations of our hearts.
While I require a world that has its armies and its police force, I do not want to live in a world in which an extension of everyone's road rage, fear, anger and paranoia is a loaded assault rifle within their whitened grips.
Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - Just for the record. I'm not fixated on assault weapons. I don't care if it is less likely--that is not a persuasive concern. A large percentage of homicides and gun assaults occur in marriages. Does that mean gun ownership by married couples should be eliminated? (Of course not). and the most interesting statistic would be--when they are used, by whom and against whom? Fact is: 1) We have a cultural problem. 2) We have a mental health problem. 3) We have a gun ownership and availability problem. A balance should be sought between publicly available mental health care, individual responsibility (both its obligations and its freedom), legitimate societal constraints on gun ownership and weapon types and the second amendment. As a culture we must reel in our violent excesses. Or we should just agree to live with a higher gun violence per capita rate than any other modern western democracy.
Loren M. Lambert © December 22, 2012
That is not to infer that somehow the absence of arms will pacify our psychopaths and criminals. No, we must be prepared, but there is a balance to be struck.
The benefit of living in as disarmed a community as our natures will allows, is not so that we live in ignorance and at the mercy of the wolves who are ever present at our doors; but is with the humble understanding that even the best of us--in moments of heightened stress, extreme need or justifiable anger; and even the meekest of us—beleaguered by illness, age and ill treatment, are more able to live up to our better natures with our hands at some distance from the triggers of death and with our minds enlightened by environments that mirror the aspirations of our hearts.
While I require a world that has its armies and its police force, I do not want to live in a world in which an extension of everyone's road rage, fear, anger and paranoia is a loaded assault rifle within their whitened grips.
Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - Just for the record. I'm not fixated on assault weapons. I don't care if it is less likely--that is not a persuasive concern. A large percentage of homicides and gun assaults occur in marriages. Does that mean gun ownership by married couples should be eliminated? (Of course not). and the most interesting statistic would be--when they are used, by whom and against whom? Fact is: 1) We have a cultural problem. 2) We have a mental health problem. 3) We have a gun ownership and availability problem. A balance should be sought between publicly available mental health care, individual responsibility (both its obligations and its freedom), legitimate societal constraints on gun ownership and weapon types and the second amendment. As a culture we must reel in our violent excesses. Or we should just agree to live with a higher gun violence per capita rate than any other modern western democracy.
Loren M. Lambert © December 22, 2012
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