Can our nation have meaningful gun debate? (Do You Feel Lucky?)

Letter: Can our nation have meaningful gun debate? - Fredericksburg.com: Opinion:
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2015 12:00 am

Guns. You’re either for them or against them.
You’ve already decided which. The whole Second Amendment “basis” we all like to natter on about is so much pseudo-intellectual smokescreen. (We pretend to be constitutional scholars when it comes to that amendment. We “know” what it means and —through a remarkable bit of telepathic communion with our long-dead Founding Fathers—we even know what these eminent figures thought and meant. We are fond of trumpeting these certainties. Remarkable.)
Does anyone sincerely believe that the whole gun argument is about the U.S. Constitution anymore? 

Well Rob Huffman, it's obvious that you are against them.

And for me, the U.S. Constitution isn't really the point.  
It's living or dying that's the point.

And for the sake of the argument which you seem to be inviting; I will declare that I am "for them".

Guns, that is.

Because I've been shot at, and missed; and I've shot back, and hit.
So the funny looking little guy who was trying to kill me was thwarted, and I prevailed.
And he died.

And I lived.

YEA, ME!

(It probably sounds insensitive to you, to hear that I am celebrating having killed a fellow human being.  But frankly, I'm alive and he isn't, so I think I just captured the moral high ground.  Unless, of course, you don't think that living is better than dying.)

Frankly, I was pretty darned happy about the outcome, 'cause if I hadn't shot back (and hit), I wouldn't be here to to discuss the whole meaningful gun debate with you.

But that doesn't matter to you, because you've never been shot at.  Obviously.
Had you been shot at, and missed, and you didn't have a way to defend yourself .... the Bad Guy (and there ARE Bad Guys out there) would have kept shooting at your defenseless ass until he killed you.

And then you wouldn't be here to promulgate this here debate on whether guns are a benefit or an evil.

I will be reviled for saying this, but I don’t think anyone really believes guns save lives.
Despite right-wing talk radios efforts to promote this fantasy and its echoing repetitions through the darker recesses of the often septic Internet blogosphere, no one really believes this. It’s convenient to say so if you’ve decided that you are pro-gun and you don’t wish to irritate the National Rifle Association and its fans.

Awwww .. you really shouldn't be talking about this shit when you obviously don't know your ass from a hole in a ground.

That hole in the ground, by the way, is the grave that neither you nof I are currently occupying.
You, because you are an ignorant dork who has never found yourself on the pointy end of the stick;
I, because I got lucky and the guy who was trying to kill me .... didn't.

He died,

I lived!
.. and I think that sort of makes my point that I really like having a gun when I need one.

I will be reviled for saying this, but I don’t think anyone really believes guns save lives. Despite right-wing talk radios efforts to promote this fantasy and its echoing repetitions through the darker recesses of the often septic Internet blogosphere, no one really believes this. It’s convenient to say so if you’ve decided that you are pro-gun and you don’t wish to irritate the National Rifle Association and its fans.

 I don't revile you for what you say.  I only lament your ignorance.


Just because you have never experienced a life-defining event, that doesn't mean that they don't happen.

Just because you don't believe in the Second Amendment, that doesn't mean that it is irrelevant,

And just because nobody has ever shot at you, that doesn't mean that it will not happen.

If and when you experience the insufferable joy of being a target, your choices are:
(a) that you will run and hide and they will not find you; or
(b) you will run and hide and they WILL find you .. and kill you, or
(c) that you will run and hide and they will find you, and you will be able to defend yourself.

In the words of Clint Eastwood (forgive me, I could not resist the obvious):

Do you feel lucky, Punk?

Well .. do you?

If you have not yet noticed, you lost the debate before it even started.
Until you have almost died, you have not noticed how easy it is for someone to kill you if you are unarmed.  And Sweet Cakes, there are a lot of people out there who will kill you without provocation.

I know you don't believe that,

It doesn't matter whether you believe that; it only matters if ONE PERSON believes that.  And he has a knife, a hammer, a pitchfork or if he's just bigger and stronger and MUCH more aggressive than you are.

Frankly, I would hazard a guess that almost everyone is "much more aggressive than you are".

Which is a (forgive me) strong argument for you to buy a gun, learn to use it, and carry it with you whether your state or municipality acknowledges your "right" to defend yourself against big, mean men.

But that's you'r choice.  You don't have to debate me on this; it's not a talking point.

It's just good advice from a person who doesn't think you should die at the hands of a mugger just because you don't like guns.

And I don't like changing flat tires.  AAA will come change my tire when it goes flat.

But what if I don't have TIME to wait for AAA ..  or a policeman ... to show up?