I am greatly saddened by the events at Virginia Tech. I have a relative who teaches at the school who was not working at the time of the shootings, but had to become involved since she is an EMT. No words can say what my heart feels about this tragedy.
What really rankles me is world leaders like the PM of Australia using this tragedy to criticize our country. While he passed on condolences, he also said it was not surprising due to our "Gun Culture". He went on to talk about how Australia no longer has this kind of worry since the government did a buy back of all guns in the country at the cost of billions of dollars.
What the PM failed to say is that Home Invasions have increased in Australia by over 500% according to some sources.
Guns are tools. Like any tool they can be misused. Yes they can be fatal as we have seen in the last few days. However a rush to judgement on law abiding gun owning citizens is not in order here. While Australia still holds the record for Gun Violence due to a rampage that killed 35 people, it now holds the distinction of having a gun free society that is at the mercy of criminals who no longer have a fear of what is on the other side of the door.
While I worry about my kids, I worry more about them being safe in their home. Take away all guns and only Criminals will have them.. YES that is a tried and OLD saying.. but still apt.
The young man who killed these people was insane. Should not have had a gun, but in the end he legally purchased a gun. This country is built on fairness and justice.
It is not justice to punish people for the crimes of others.
The comments of the PM from Australia were outrageous and disrespectful of this country and its people. Guns are the equalizer. They give society and people a recourse to injustice. I do not subscribe to rebellion or to anarchy. However the greatest document ever written.. the Declaration of Independence states..
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
People have the right to rebel against injustice and if the government owns all of the guns then the people depend on the government and are also at the mercy of government.
Our founding fathers were aware of this and wrote into our constitution a guarantee that the people could rise against any attempt to take over the government. While I realize this sounds a bit conspiratorial, and maybe even wacko.. if you stop and think about it we do need to worry about the people being powerless against the government and the military it controls. Will it happen in this country? NO I do not believe it will.. However it "Could".
Guns in the hands of the people also lower the possibility of invasion by an outside power. After all if you conquer the military you still have to conquer the people.
Thats my take on it.
Jim Dicken
