Fear of Loss

 

“Guns are not the problem. The species is the problem.”
― Forrest Carr

 

Many who know me are surprised that I do not believe in banning guns. Oh I wouldn’t own one myself as I’d be too concerned about just where the bullets might end up going. I am also aware that despite popular misconception it is rare indeed that a criminal with a gun is stopped by armed civilians. I believe the FBI statistics say that happens only three percent of the time.
Yet I believe strongly in the rights and decisions of individuals and Americans have in the last few decades found more and more of their rights taken away sometimes with less justification, sometimes with more. I also feel that abolishing firearms would be addressing a symptom and not the cause of the violence in the states today.
We live in a frightening world and the media and our politicians go out of their way to keep it that way. As I’ve said before, a frightened populace is much easier to control than a calm rational one. Fear excites our limbic brains and brings out a strong fight or flight reaction. When we are scared, we want to do something, anything to stop that fear and rationality goes out the window. We need to address that fear both within ourselves and others and learn how to deal with it.
I also believe that guns need to be handled with much more care and training and demystified. If guns are going to be in the hands of the populace than from a very early age, gun safety and knowledge needs to be taught. The consequences of shooting at a human being needs to be shown as graphically as possible and understanding fostered as to the damage that a gun can do.
There is also a need to teach people to critically differentiate between a real immediate threat and a rhetorical threat. The chances in any one person’s lifetime of finding themselves in a fire zone where they or loved ones are endangered is rather slim. The chances of worsening a situation by pulling a gun of our own in a given situation is high. The reality is that owning guns will not make us safer but learning how to deal with our fears will.
One of the biggest fears we as humans have is the fear of losing something that belongs to us. When the subject of gun control comes up, the odds are that those so inclined will go out of their way to arm themselves more thus proving that a) no one can tell them what to do and b) no one is going to take something away from them. The question is what can we replace firearms with? It doesn’t seem to be peace of mind.
Blessings, G

 

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The ReturnThe Return by G A Rosenberg

 

Vision of a Questionable OrderVision of a Questionable Order by G A Rosenberg