Thursday, January 24, 2013

GUNS VS SYMPTOMS AND DISEASES

So, in most cases, we seem to be left with the two options concerning the current crisis we have with people obtaining guns and slaying a great number of innocent people:


 
1)       Take guns away from everybody.  If we cannot all be responsible with guns, let’s take them all away.  The net result of this would be, IMHO, that only none-law-abiding citizens will have guns.
2)      Give guns to everybody.  Arm teachers in schools and bus drivers on the Metro.  Like nuclear weapons the only real deterrent is to make sure that if you are going to shoot at someone that they have the capability to shoot back.  IMHO, another disaster waiting to happen.
 
But what if guns are not the problem real problem?  True, they are a problem all right.  And maybe it’s the type and amount of guns that are a problem – but are they the core of the problem or mostly a symptom?  If mice keep getting into your home, the problem is not mice - it might more likely be the cleanliness of your house or the hole in your foundation leading to a warm place to sleep.

 
As a society do we value the dignity of the human person – and by that I mean each and every human person?  Why, even in our entertainment, is it so often the solution to the problem with other people (from aliens to men in black hats) death?
 
Ethics is difficult to teach in our schools because it smacks of a Judeo/Christian heritage.  It is replaced by an intolerant Toleration policy.  As a society there is a movement away from the family as the building block of society model so society is in flux there too.  The faith that was the foundation of so much of civilization is losing sway, the focus of life is more toward what makes the individual emotionally happy rather than what is good for the community and nation. 
 
Oh, I could go on whining couldn’t I?  But here is the point: We have become more narcissistic, we have lost a sense of the dignity of life, have convinced ourselves that we have a right to be happy, we continue to remove social restraints, we have moved out of well connected communities, families are divided, and we have guns coming out of our ears.  Will the ultimate solution be to simply get rid of guns?  If we are too fat is the solution to limit food distribution?  If we are too drunk is prohibition a good thing?  Well, maybe to some extent.  But are guns the problem or is it something closer to core of the society that we are creating for ourselves?

 

Just asking for deeper thought on the question.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good questions, Father. Personally, I am not particularly afraid of the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners in this country. I am far more afraid of what you speak of: a populace that has lost it's reverence for life. There were far more murders by hammers in 2011 than automatic firearms... but I can't imagine the government banning hammers... or swimming pools (the number one cause of accidental deaths of children in the United States) or vehicles (imagine!). I am also far more concerned about a government that currently uses its power to crush innocent life and subvert religious and civil freedom.

I am no gun lover. But I pray to God that a good many people in this country are armed if this government ever breaks its restraints. The first step of all tyrants and leaders of genocide throughout history was to create a defenseless populace. In other words, they enacted sweeping gun control laws in the name of "safety". That is the primary reason why our very educated founding fathers were rather hung up on the right and obligation of Americans to keep and bear arms. And it is the only reason that we won the Revolutionary War. (It also happens to be the primary reason that Japan did not put ground troops on American soil during WWII.)

Bringing it back to your main point... we live in a culture that throws away life. Babies go out with the trash, sexual deviancy and abuse is king, violence in media is preferred, we have a love affair with horror, and Christianity is going to soon find itself subject to hate laws. The fact that the government has been able to convince people that firearms are the problem... is bizarre.

This whole situation has convinced me that I aught to give my own squeamishness (I'm a female, after all) about guns a second look (sans emotion). The Catholic Church certainly supports an individual's right to use proportionate defense (even if it involves killing) to defend life, one's own or another's. Perhaps now is an excellent time in American history to take my Constitutional and God-given rights seriously.

Anonymous said...

Here is a link that refutes the hammer death statistic with a link to FBI stats.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&address=10022129264

I am also a gun owner and CCW holder.