Top Gun wrote:Okay, I freely admit that I am coming on somewhat too strong here. It's just that the entire culture of owning firearms, or even the desire to own them, is so far removed from my own experience that I legitimately have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Hell, I remember my parents being kind of freaked out when I went to a friend's house in grade school and came back telling them that his dad owned a bunch of guns...until they found out that he was a police officer (and our current long-term police chief actually). I personally know very few people who own guns. I have an uncle who owns a few for hunting, but even in that case, their house was broken into a few years ago, and the thieves managed to make off with the entire full-size gun safe by shoving it down the stairs, so that's not exactly a comforting example. (There's a pretty hilarious story there about the cops' reaction to a mounted coyote my uncle had sitting in their bedroom at the time, but that's for another thread.)
There's probably a deeper reason too. I've had to deal with clinical depression in my past, and while I was never as far as being suicidal, at the very least I was in the general vicinity of that precipice. I know what it is to feel that kind of despair and hopelessness. If I'd had easy access to something that can take a life as simply as clicking a mouse when I hit those darkest moments...well, who's to say. I know of far too many cases where people took that route, and the statistics of how much the suicide rate spikes by among those with a firearm in the house should be sobering to anyone. So no, I never want anything like that anywhere near me.
Yes, I know the temptation to use a gun on yourself would definitely be a consideration to not want to own one if you're depressed and perhaps suicidal. I've been so low at times lately because of the nearly constant pain that I've seriously had thoughts about using my own gun as an easy way to end that damn pain and that menopausal depression that's dogged me for over 12 years. With it loaded and close by, the temptation is irresistible when you get into that really dark place people who get depressed know all about. But you know, I've actually run that thought through my head many many times and I've decided that even if I came to the point of suicide, I wouldn't want to die using a gun to do it. It's a really violent and messy way to end your life. There's also distinct possibility that you may
not succeed at killing yourself, only maiming yourself and making your life worse and more painful, especially to those you love around you. My grandfather took his life with a gun and it wasn't pleasant for those he left behind. So even in the deepest darkest most painful times in my life, I've made the conscious choice to
never use a gun to end my life, even though I own one and my will is constantly being tested, and believe me, it's still being rigorously tested. By the way Top Gun, Grendel's right. Shooting a gun at targets IS a fun little pastime. Try it sometime. Even though I own one, I've only ever shot it at targets. I hope I
never have to shoot it at a person in fear. I don't have delusions of Rambo.
Back to the original thread. My husband came up with this thought after hearing Trump boast that if people in that nightclub had been carrying guns, that shooter wouldn't have killed so many people. Bang, right in the head, problem solved, according to Trump. Never mind that there was already an armed security guard in the nightclub and he did engage the shooter. It proves that Trump's a blowhard crackwipe who doesn't understand how hard it is to shoot someone,
and reliably hit them at all, in the middle of absolute chaos. In fact, I'll bet the prick has NEVER even fired a firearm in his entire life.
But has anyone thought about due process? In this country, everyone is supposed to have due process under the law. According to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, the Due Process Clause prohibits state and local government officials from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without legislative authorization. Now granted, an individual is
not a state or a government, but are we as a country resurrecting another murky vigilante era where the individual can legally forgo another person's due process to life, without a trial? I guess what I'm asking is, does the right to protect yourself at all costs violate another person's due process? Sure, the criminal may be depriving another person of his life and liberty, but that's why we have laws, to prosecute those who violate those laws and hopefully deter more people in the future from doing those crimes. It's called; "Do the crime, do the time". That's what happens in a normal
civilized, law-abiding society. So if we all arm ourselves and start shooting first and asking questions later, aren't we returning to the old era of the Wild West? Do people in this country really want to go there again, justice at the end of a gun? It seems downright crazy. What good are our laws if we don't use and respect them?
