Cold dead fingers........

They will take away my right to defend myself from the violence that surrounds me in a society gone mad when they pry that mechanism from my cold, dead hands.

I am a human being, and as a human being, I am in reality not much more than an animal with a hyped up ability to be violent, and creatively so, thanks to my sentience. I can get angry, and that anger can be expressed violently if I do not maintain control. So, I am the only attempting to face life in a realistic fashion when I state that as long as civilians in this country have access, much less a right to, weapons designed to do just one thing, kill, then I will arm myself in such a fashion as not to be totally defenseless. So why in the same breath do I also say that the National Rifle Association is the real cancer eating this country from within?

I would not in the least object to the average citizen being denied a handgun. I would love to see hunters limited to owning one rifle designed specifically for hunting. If you honestly think you need an assault weapon with a thirty round clip to hunt deer, then you honestly can't call yourself a hunter. You are nothing but a trigger happy idiot who is out to blow something away, not engaging in the time honored give and take between hunter and prey, taking from nature to sustain yourself.

The problem with these viewpoints I express above is that America is far from a truly civilized society. From day one we have moved Westward from Plymouth Rock with guns in our hands, using them against the residents, the wildlife, and each other as we clawed and scrapped and claimed our individual chunks of the American dream. As hard as we worked to establish the rule of law, we worked equally hard to get what we wanted one way or another. Between two raw citizens on the streets of Laredo who knew damn well that justice was anything but blind, it usually boiled down to who was faster and more accurate with a pistol rather than who was right. That mentality lives with us today, on the meanstreets of everytown USA. Today the left wing elitists would have us believe that disarming every law abiding citizen would cure our murder rate, yet they can't explain how they'd keep these weapons out of the hands of criminals, who usually could care less about law in general. Since we have numerous weapons manufacturers churning out every kind of handgun imaginable, needing to push inventory, those guns get into SOMEone's hands one way or another. Law abiding citizens go to legitimate gun shops and purchase these things, sometimes having to register them or somehow be held accountable for their use. Felons simply go to the guy who buys them in bulk at gun shows to pass along to them for a healthy mark-up, no questions asked.
Now tell me, if someone finds their way into your home with nefarious purposes in mind, is officer friendly going to magically appear between you and this bad guy or guys and protect you? Of course not. They will respond to 911 and appear on the scene AFTER the damage has been done, which may include your murder. If you are on equal terms with this invader firepower wise, you have at least the home court advantage, and at least a good chance of surviving the encounter.

Well, you say, Canada doesn't have these problems. That's true, and there are plenty of reasons for this. For one thing, Canadians don't have this social sense of paranoia that we American's nurture so well. Canadians do not have a God given right to bear AK-47's or saturday night specials. Canadians in general do not even have a need to lock their doors at night. Canadians do not have a gun lobby insuring that criminals have every loophole imaginable in order to acquire their weaponry. This is not to say that Canada does not have crime. But compare the statistics and you can see that our violent crime is well fed.

Put the National Rifle Association out of it's misery. Arm the police and the military. Return weapons manufacturers to their rightful purpose, to provide the tools that law enforcement and the military need, not pour these tools of murder and mayhem out on the mean streets of America. Protect the rights of genuine hunters to own hunting rifles and shotguns. Then, and only then will I give up my humble little handgun. But I WILL keep a louisville slugger handy, and I'll still have the home court advantage.