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soar2newhighs When did immigration become part of the gun controversy? This is the crux of the issue - the obfuscation and deflection of those so rabid about some sense of personal freedom, the very concept of "gun" is now synonymous with it.
We have a high, high gun use and death rate in the US.
We have a lot of guns.
We celebrate a culture of perceived power and status through intimidation and oppression.
If we can't trust each other with guns, then we need to find a better way of keeping and using them.
Simple.
Mace is illegal in some states, but guns are unregulated. Tasers are illegal in many states, but AR-15's are a-okay. And when there's a tragedy, we don't run the calculation through our head: 1 unstable individual + 1 or more firearms = death. Rather than re-work the formula, we introduce all kinds of flotsam and jetsam: hoodies, bump stocks, type of ammo, amount of ammo, where the gun was purchased, some magical background check that would uncover what had yet to be diagnosed, any and all kinds of irrelevant strawmen.
Lawmakers have made the concept of gun ownership absolutely synonymous with keeping Big Gov't at bay, controlling all the 'others' coming to get us, personal freedom and patriotism. Even though the clear majority of citizens favor some kind of sane regulation, the men (mostly) charged with doing the peoples' bidding a refusing to move.
We don't need so many guns. We certainly don't need to glorify them. In the lofty argument of gun control and freedom, this is what many imagine:
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This is much closer to the truth:
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