...and, that when people try to do bad things anyway "someone" will be there to stop them, and protect us.
It's the same impulse behind just about every other time anyone says "there ought to be a law"...
... And just as it is with just about every other issue, in just about every other case... it's pretty much always wrong.
Why "must" there be "something" we can do?
Because we wish there was? Because we hope there is?
Sadly, wishing and hoping don't seem to have much if any impact on criminal behavior. Nor do the literally millions of laws and regulations, hundreds of thousands of police, and thousands of prisons and jails in this country.
Laws don't prevent bad behavior, they simply define the punishment for violating the law... and when someone is already willing to commit a crime regardless of the punishment, making it "extra illegal" isn't going to change anything.
Murder is already illegal... gun, knife, baseball bat, fist... the weapon used doesn't matter.
The second part of the error, is the idea that laws will actually stop people from acquiring the weapons they "need" to commit crimes.
Of course... you don't actually need a "weapon" to commit murder... it's just physically easier than beating someone to death... But then again, so is running them over with a car.
You can't control behavior, by regulating an inanimate object, that has little to do with the behavior... Or for that matter, much at all, even if it IS required...
You simply cannot stop people from acquiring weapons... including guns... no matter how "strong" you think your laws are. It's not possible. No matter how strict the gun control, criminals get guns... never mind knives, clubs, bombs, poison...
You can literally make a gun, and it's ammunition, with a few dollars, and access to a hardware store.
You can make the regulated parts of AR15 in your garage with basic power tools, never mind what you can do with a benchtop CNC machine, or a 3d printer, all of which are now commonly available at low cost.
.... and then there's the hundreds of millions of guns already out there... Actually I personally think, and have posted the math and evidence as to why, it's more like over a billion...
It is impossible to stop people from acquiring basically whatever weapon they want, with laws.
It is impossible to stop people from doing bad things, with laws.
They're just about as effective as the "war on drugs" is today, or alcohol prohibition was in 1919.
All laws do, is hobble the law abiding.
If you want to stop people from doing bad things, you have to do so either:
- Before they ever want to do those bad things... with education, mental health care, productive employment etc...
- While they are attempting them... with opposing force.
... And I don't know about you... but I don't have a time machine to go back and give a criminal a better life and a good therapist, so they wont try to harm me... and I live in the middle of nowhere, and don't happen to carry a cop around in my pocket. If someone wants to do something bad to me or my family, I don't have time to wait for police.
... Never mind the fact that it is both entirely irrational, and entirely morally bankrupt, to believe it is acceptable for someone else to use force to defend me and my family, but not acceptable to do so for myself...
What I DO have, is a responsibility to understand all of the above, accept it, and be prepared to do something about it if necessary... Not to hide my head in the sand, deny it, and pretend otherwise.
It's my responsibility to defend myself and my family, because no-one else is going to do it for me (and in fact, to burden others with doing so by my unpreparedness, is immoral)...
... and for that matter, if I am able to do so... without undue risk of harm to myself or my family...to defend those around me, if they are similarly attacked... But that is secondary...
Thus, I have guns, and I train with them, and I mentally prepare to use them to defend myself and others, if necessary. I hope it never is, but I would be failing in my responsibilities, if I didn't prepare for the possibility.
Ok...
What really gets me though... Is that I have this discussion with people... and sometimes, they really do understand it and believe it...
... and they still think we "must do something" anyway...
For symbolic reasons I guess?
Seems like insanity to me...
