At first that statement might get a lot of folks scratching their heads, wondering "WTH" is this guy on about? But stop and think about the crimes we see perpetrated TODAY with the same (types of) crimes from years past.
Time was, when you were robbed on the street, it was more covert, and as simple as a "sap" (a small, leather covered shot-filled club) against the back of your head followed by your pockets turned inside out...end of story. You wound up with a golf ball-sized knot on your noggin and an empty wallet. Today, it's all about intimidation....you're "asked for the time", and then accosted AT GUNPOINT (threatening your ability to retain your water), TOLD to "hand everything over" , and after all THAT, you just MIGHT still get shot in the head ANYWAY, for no other reason than having this perp garner some "street cred".
We're in the midst of a sudden rise in violent crime....and it's nationwide.
How times have changed.
Less than fifty years ago, you were able to LEGALLY purchase a gun from an advertisement in the back of some paper or magazine (for cheap), and have the damn thing DELIVERED to your front door...no questions asked. And it really didn't matter if it were a long gun or a pistol. As anyone who studied the JFK assassination would know, that's just the method Oswald used to secure his Mannlicher-Carcano RIFLE! He bought the damn thing for less than FIFTY bucks!
Today, we have the mandatory background checks...you're finger-printed, and in some states, you have to go through a "waiting period"...all for OUR safety. This is supposed to keep the wrong people from getting the firearms. And as the statistics claim over recent years, the wrong people are STILL getting firearms. Granted many are stolen, and many more are "straw-purchased", but the fact remains painfully clear...the WRONG people are getting guns....and are not afraid to use them for the most innocuous crimes.
We're not a safer people...not by a long shot (no pun intended).
I'm ALL for the 2nd Amendment...make no mistake about that. I believe every LAW-ABIDING citizen should own a few guns and know how to use them properly. So the issue to *me* is NOT about GUN control...it IS about PEOPLE control. You can no more legislate guns than you can legislate say...automobiles (which kill their own share of people every year). It's not about the MACHINE, but rather the PERSON using (or misusing) it.
Now we have to take into account that we're seeing a LOT more crimes done by KIDS today....and they're packing some serious heat. Funny, but when you were able to buy a gun through the mail, crime SHOULD have went through the roof...but it didn't. Maybe kids were too busy being....well, KIDS! Hell, we played with ALL kinds of toy guns, and I sure don't have this penchant to become the next mass murderer (although there ARE some locals around here test my patience daily, and try to convince me otherwise...LOL).
That to me would seem the major problem today...this loss of innocence; the fact that kids are FORCED to grow up way before their time. We can blame the media for much of that, as well as bad parenting (a very large contributing factor), if there's even some adult in the house that gives a crap in the first place. But when you grow up in a culture that embraces (and actively practices) violence from within the house, it's little wonder what you're going to grow up to be. Sadly, it's become a multi-generational phenomenon, this rather hap-hazard attitude about life (or the loss of it), and the means to secure your place in it...by whatever means possible, and at whatever the cost.
Used to be you either succeeded or failed on your own merits (or the lack of them). Now, it's better to obtain "success" by forcing "failure" upon others, because you're too lazy, or stupid, or both. And a gun is a damn good way to get ANY point across, no matter HOW damn dumb you tend to be. Used to be courage in a bottle or liquid courage that got you into a situation...now it's "courage in a cartridge"!
It still amazes me that KIDS can get guns that I can only dream about...then again, I'm the idiot purchasing them legally and NOT using these firearms for supplementing my wages by relieving others of theirs!
It's never going to be about gun control. Taking us back to a time where violence was "easier" to deal with (as well as severely DEALT with), simply because the end result was a lot less fatal, is something our society needs. I'm not saying that violence should be nice at all. What I would say is that violence, like ANY emotive nuance the human species invokes, can be controlled, channelled, and diffused to a large extent. But we have to institute programs that will WORK, and not some "feel-good" rhetoric spouting from legislative pieholes.
And for Christ's sake...get these kids some DECENT role models...this current breed of "music-showbiz-athletic" icons isn't much good to anyone (let alone our children) with their behavior. Sometimes it's as simple as sitting down and talking with your kids...spending some time with them.
The alternative to not allowing kids to grow up as intended, and be kids is something we're never going to be properly prepared to deal with.
They ARE "our" future after all, as well as their own.
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