Where's the Sanity?

I admit it, sometimes I myself feel a little bit conflicted over the gun control debate. Not that I own any guns, or plan on gun ownership in the near future, but I do happen to see the valid points on each side of the debate. The further we go into this debate, since the horrid massacre in Newtown, the more I find it difficult to even feel remotely sympathetic to those opposed to stricter gun control laws. The facts aside for the moment, sane leadership opposed to gun control seems to be going right out the window.

Let us even disregard the antics of Wayne LaPierre for a moment. Mike Leara, Republican state representative of Missouri, has decided to sponsor a bill that would actually make it a class D felony for anyone to propose legislation “that further restricts and individual’s right to bear arms.” It would be a felony for a representative to simply do their job in attempting to further public safety. Believe it or not, Missouri isn’t the first state to pull a scheme like this! While Vice President Biden was spending some time in Virginia speaking about the Obama administrations plan for gun control, the Virginia House of Delegates was in the process of approving a bill that prohibits state agencies and employees from enforcing new measures of control. And, apparently, Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, and Wyoming have all made their own plans to make it a criminal offense for their employees to enforce the federal statute.

Our country is, obviously, divided to a point that could cause some serious harm to it. Everyone, at times on both sides of the political spectrum, seems to be acting out of fear and irrationality, and we seem to be drifting far away from the main points and the facts, which I hope to have time to speak to in a later post. Firearms are unlike any other product on the market. Their sole purpose is to kill, and they are designed accordingly, but the founders of this country felt that there was at least some need, at least in their rime, to allow American citizens to own firearms. In today’s world of warfare it is simply foolish to believe that a firearm will protect you from the tyranny of government, but, in some instances, a firearm can serve as a means of protection from others or, at times, a plain and simple tool of death and destruction. There needs to be balance. Other countries in our peer group have managed this issue relatively simply; can we not reach that point as well?

In order to reach a point where this debate does not become a good ol’ fashioned liberal feeding frenzy and good, solid, quality decisions that satisfy the American public and provide public safety are reached, we desperately NEED quality leaders on both sides of the fence to admit that there is a problem and we must come together as a nation to fix it. The same being true for all issues in this country.

LH