Originally Posted by earle58
please don't misunderstand me.
i truly do respect your values.
it's hard to be anti-gun and not come across as judgmental.
and i am not judging.
i'm trying to make sense out of it.
finally, i think i've gotten a whole lot of security out of having 3 dogs- 2 of them german shepherds.
no one dares to bother us.
and we live in a not-so-safe-neighborhood.
leslie
I get it Leslie.
It's been quite an evolution for me. From my "kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" and "kill a commie for mommy" days as a young, hard-charging, 17-year-old Marine to my spiritual reawakening in my early 30's where I disposed of all my guns and developed a pacifist attitude to now being in my mid-40's with a little child to watch after and the development of my current attitude (and somewhat recent decision to rearm myself).
The things that have really tipped the scales for me are some stories that I've read over the years of home invasions that included horrible violence against children and then the madness that followed Katrina.
Being a planner I have long held a cache of disaster-readiness supplies. I've deliberately stocked more than we need because I know that there will be lots of people who haven't planned and I will intend to share. One thing that Katrina taught me, though, is that my supplies have little value unless I have the ability to defend them. Otherwise, they're almost certain to be taken. Even worse, though, are the pigs who will look at my daughter as yet another spoil of the conflict. Uh uh, no way.
I lived for years in Congo and have been following the trauma in that country. The people are suffering horribly in part because they have no means to defend themselves against the various militias that come through. I just watched a story in which they state (truthfully, I believe) that nearly every woman in the refugee camp has been raped, some by the marauding militias and many by the regular army troops who are supposed to protect them.
The most recent story wasn't a home invasion but did demonstrate the value of ready access to a firearm. Just up the road a piece a mentally ill man came to the home of his parents where a conflict ensued. The sick man grabbed a butcher knife and began attacking his family. He killed a couple of them and followed a couple more out into the street in front where he continued his assault. A neighbor across the street grabbed his gun and shot him thus saving two members of that family. Were it not for his gun and willingness to use it, those folks would be dead, too.
I think that there's a significant chance that we could see regional or national chaos in my lifetime... What's going to happen when gas is $8.00 a gallon, milk is $12/gallon, and bread is $7.00/loaf and inflation is running 15% while actual unemployment is running 15%? Or, since I live near the SF Bay Area, what happens when a 8.5 quake rolls through and disrupts infrastructure? Or the flu pandemic? Or the attack that makes 9/11 look mild? I don't know the answer but I think it could get ugly, very quickly, and very unpredictably.
I fully respect your viewpoint, partly because you share it well and respectfully and partly because it aligns with where I've been. I thank you for respecting mine.
To all of that reasoning I add my belief in constitutional rights and my fear of the government seeking to restrict them. I think the Bush administration has shown the ease with which the government will trample people's rights and the rule-of-law in order to achieve their objectives... and I think the last 6 years have shown how willing fearful people are to let them.
It saddens me that human beings need to have weapons to protect ourselves from each other but thus has it always been and thus will it always be.
Would you like to comment?
