1. The second amendment is the root of all evil when
it comes to gun control in America and anyone that tells you the second
amendment unwaveringly protects the rights of all Americans to keep
and bear arms is stretching the truth. There is one qualifier in the second
amendment that is often overlooked by gun nuts and the NRA, and that qualifier is "well-regulated." Even 200 years ago, when the
amendment was adopted into the constitution, someone had the sense to
know that guns must be controlled.
I won't delve into statistics, a simple Google search
will help prove my point, but in countries like Canada, Britain, Japan,
and Australia, where there are stricter gun laws, (ie. where guns are "well-regulated") there are drastically fewer gun-related deaths.
In the
2008-2009 period, there were 39 gun-related deaths in Britain and 11
in Japan. There were 12,000 in the United States.
As a nation, people should speak up for that qualifier that is saving lives in other countries. Those
two words are the difference between simple gun registration and control,
and an unregulated militia run amok.
2. Here's another constitutional issue. Yes, maybe
the second amendment is confusing. Maybe the wording: "the right
of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," overpowers
the "well-regulated" part. But when something is confusing,
it should be clarified.
Amending the constitution is not unheard of. Yes,
it will have rednecks everywhere outraged and ready to riot. But these
are the same rednecks whose ancestors wrote
in the constitution:
Representatives and direct taxes . . . shall be determined by adding
to the whole number of Free Persons . . . excluding Indians not taxed, and three fifths of
all other Persons.
And if you can't figure out what that means, I'll
spell it out for you: It means that black people, slaves, were only
counted as three-fifths of a person.
Guess what? That part of the constitution is long
gone. It was changed because people got smarter and evolved and made
the adjustments necessary for a civilized nation.
3. The NRA thinks more guns is the answer, suggesting that armed guards
on school grounds could prevent tragedies like the Sandy Hook shooting
in Newtown, Connecticut. Well, both Columbine High School and Virginia
Tech had armed guards stationed on their campuses at the time of their
tragic shootings. Even Fort Hood, an entire army base full of armed
personnel, couldn't prevent the tragic shooting that occurred there
only recently.
4. I could go on forever but I'll make this my last
point. The movie Bully was forcibly rated R in the United States because it
was effectively declared "too much" for viewers under the
age of 18. KinderSurprise chocolate eggs are banned due to dangers posed
to children.
The gun used to kill 20 children last month was a Bushmaster
XM-15 rifle. It is one of the guns that was used in the war in Iraq
and is still being used in the war in Afghanistan. It has a rate of
fire of 700-950 rounds PER MINUTE in its fully automatic version. This
is not a weapon intended for hunting or protection. This is a weapon
intended for war, intended to kill mass amounts of people, and to kill
them quickly. This weapon was legally owned by Adam Lanza's mother.
This is a weapon legally owned by many in the United States.
But KinderSurprises are too dangerous for your children?