I’ve been talking to people on Facebook recently on the subject of gun control. I’m for it; they’re against.
The argument against gun control doesn’t seem to have any particulars, just insults and the assertion that the government is out to take away their guns and their right to own them, which is not the case. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms and the Supreme Court has ruled in the affirmative on the individual right to own a gun. So why the belligerence?
Who has made us so fearful of threats that don’t exist? Religion. Since childhood, we have been taught the fear of eternal punishment if we disobey certain rules, certain people, certain institutions. We have been kept afraid of something that doesn’t exist.
This pervasive, unreasoned fear has made us a prime target for any politician who uses fear to get elected and the National Rifle Association, which uses fear to enrich itself. They get us buying guns using the fear of gun sales being outlawed. And law-abiding gun owners whose Second Amendment right is not under attack are gullible enough to believe anything the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre tells them. They buy more guns and inveigh against any limitations, even ones that could save their own lives.
Truly, it is our lives that are threatened, not our rights.
