The Right to Bear Arms

Today, on a beautiful day after April Fools Day and during the holiest of weeks for the Christian community, a gunman entered a private Korean Christian College and opened fire, killing seven people and wounding three others.

I don’t intend to describe what happened, I wouldn’t even attempt it. The coverage of the crime is all over the media and quite honestly, I wasn’t there and I am sure they can cover the event much better than I ever could.

I only have one question: Why does this happen so often?

Researching about what for me represents the main issue, the repetitive act of murdering students at any given school, I came across some information that I find disturbing.

I found out that during the last 16 years, worldwide, there has been 73 such cases. That might not sound like a very high number and perhaps it’s not, but 75% of those cases were perpetrated in the United States. Seventy-Five percent is a very high percentage!

Looking further into this data, I found out that in all of the countries where these crimes were committed, people have the right to bear arms. Some of the countries have stricter laws than others, but they all embrace the same excuse to own a gun for hunting.

During the last sixteen years, 261 people died and another 245 were injured at the hands of whom for most of us must be a mentally unstable person. The common denominator in all these cases is the right to bear arms, a gun.

When are we, a supposedly “civilized” country, going to admit that the “right to bear arms,” as written by our Forefathers, should be removed from the Constitution? The time when George Washington, Thomas Jefferson etc. lived are not the present times. Back in those days, you defended your honor in a duel; that’s unthinkable today. Laws are meant to change with the times so they are applicable to current circumstances; they are always changing, except that particular one, because it is supported by the strongest, most powerful lobbyist in the Nation: the NRA.

The National Rifle Association is what has permeated the laws where automatic and semi-automatic and assault weapons are sold in this country to anyone over the age of 21 and after a waiting period between 3 to 14 days depending on the State. That waiting period is known as the “cool-off period.” At 21, it’s very feasible that you don’t have a criminal record and you will have no problem purchasing a gun, legally. If you have a criminal record, don’t dismay! There are plenty of illegal guns on the black market, usually acquired by thieves who find them in the nightstand tables or under the mattresses of many overzealous gun owners.

I have always found it interesting that besides a criminal record, only age matters. There are no psychological studies or questionnaires to determine if the individual is mentally stable. You are not required to undergo a professional psychological evaluation or a drug test and I think that should be mandatory.

When you visit the NRA website, one of the pictures they have is of a man carrying a weapon with a caption saying "protecting your right to protect yourself." The only interest the NRA has is not to protect our right to bear arms, but the money they make with it and they couldn’t care less how many people die on a yearly basis because of guns, after all “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” I’ve been hearing that nonsense forever. It is true that people kill people, but it makes it so much easier when all they have to do is to press on a trigger and shoot from a distance!

When I looked at their merchandise, I was appalled to see a section for children, granted, it contains videos and books on gun safety, but why would a child be near a gun to begin with?

While visiting the NRA website, on their home page you can find the following post written by Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director:

“March 20, 2012

'Fast and Furious' Part of Eric Holder's Anti-Gun Brainwashing Campaign

Editorial in The Daily Caller

NRA has been saying for years that Attorney General Eric Holder, our nation's chief law enforcement officer, is an anti-gun extremist. He's been toeing the Obama anti-gun ideological line for his entire life, and now we have more evidence.

Brietbart.com has unearthed a 1995 video of Eric Holder speaking to the Women's National Democratic Club. In that video, then-U.S. Attorney Holder urges support for a public campaign to "really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way."

Not to actually look at the data on gun ownership and crime. Not to consider the value of firearms as a means of self-defense. Not to lock up violent criminals. Not to pay any attention to the facts or the truth.

Brainwash.

Holder's vision for brainwashing the American people against our firearm freedoms even included enlisting the advocacy skills of former Washington, D.C. mayor, and convicted felon, Marion Barry, and of course, that paragon of honesty, Jesse Jackson.

In retrospect, Holder's speech was an ominous foreshadowing of the lengths he was willing to go to push a gun-ban agenda.

Today, our country is reeling in disgust over Operation Fast and Furious, a criminal gun-running scheme engineered by Holder's Justice Department to blame our Second Amendment freedoms for Mexican drug cartel crime.

We now know that this illegal pipeline of guns to Mexico — established by our government, with our tax dollars — was responsible for the deaths of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, hundreds of Mexican citizens and, very likely, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

And now, this video only offers further evidence that Operation Fast and Furious was a premeditated, criminal act, conceived — and then covered up — under an anti-gun ideologue who is intent on brainwashing Americans into giving up our Second Amendment rights.

When Operation Fast and Furious was first uncovered, NRA said that Holder is either lying or incompetent, and that he can't be trusted with the powers of his office or the sanctity of our freedoms.

Now, with the emergence of this damning new video, Americans need to ask how much more it will take — in the name of Eric Holder's brainwashing campaign — before he is removed from office.”

The above is an obvious attempt to use the same rhetoric they have been using against Democrats for years. In this post, Mr. Cox claims that Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama - who have been in their respective positions for over three years – are fighting to abolish the “so sacred” Second Amendment. I wish they were but they are not. I do not dispute that perhaps both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are against guns; quite honestly I believe any human being with a conscience should be; but claiming that they are trying to change the Second Amendment is simply a lie, the same lie used on every election where a Democrat is most likely to win.

Needless to say, all the rednecks who love their guns much more than they love their spouse will be, literally, up in arms. I think a prerequisite for owning a gun is to not have too many brain cells, hence the insatiable desire to own a “big” gun. Perhaps owning a big gun compensates for the miniscule size of their virile organ... who knows! But the most fervent and loud supporters of the NRA are usually not that educated, not too smart and for some odd reason, they love beer as much as they do their guns.

The NRA must be very happy today. After all, another gun aficionado went hunting for… people.


Timeline of Worldwide School Shootings: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html
Gun Laws by Country: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law