Gun Fight In The Hub City

I am no longer on Facebook. The recent fighting over guns was the last straw for me. Twenty little lives snuffed out and everyone wants to use them to make a point for their side. I am in awkward position here because I believe in gun rights, but I don't believe in ammo drums or even 30 round clips. I think somewhere in the middle things change from home protection to homeland threat.  More after the jump.

First off, I am not going to respond to any comments on this particular thread, that's not what this thread is for. This thread is about the lives lost. Until you've carried a tiny coffin you don't get to comment.  The fact is that gun owners are being selfish and paranoid and the anti-gun crowd is being judgmental and paranoid.  In the middle are those of us who don't really care one way or another, we just don't want kids to get shot.  You can live in the Wild West and shoot each other all you want or you can pretend in some fantasy future where no one needs a gun, it really doesn't matter to me.  Somewhere along the line respect for human life was lost and that is the thing that needs to be restored.  I think along the way, respect for ALL life has to be considered to even take it up to the human level.  If you think it's fun to indiscriminately blast critters, then you're part of the problem. On the other hand, I understand that some varmints and some herds do need to be thinned out on a regular basis or bigger problems arise.

I think like everything else that respect needs to be taught at home. Respect for life. Respect for guns (whether you have them or not). Respect for our elders and our leaders and even for the wildlife that is sometimes hunted.  I think that we also need to have a respectful conversation about guns and if there is anything that can be done to keep them from getting in the wrong hands.

I recently saw a video of Ted Nugent on the Piers Morgan show. What's funny is that I've seen both gun rights owners go "Hell yeah Ted" and anti-gun folks go "this is the kind of crazy we're up against".  Myself, I'll let you judge the video as a whole, what bothered me was the point where Ted told Pierce to "suck on his machine gun".  THAT sentence.  Those five words should be the essence of this entire gun debate. It's not about the guns, it's about the complete lack of respect for another human life. The fact that anyone could say that so casually in conversation and not even think twice about it, is MUCH MORE damaging than any gun.  That mentality needs to go.  That is the mentality that leads to loss of life, the gun itself is irrelevant at that point. I have to agree with the Painman when he says education and respect are on the top of the list, but not just in how you treat weapons, but also in how we treat each other.

I'm sorry if I don't engage you in debate. We failed those kids. Both gun owners and the anti-gun folks both failed to come up with any real solutions after the last 30 or so mass shootings.  It's time to come up with some sort of plan and stick with it. What we have now is not working.  Until we admit we failed, we're not going to have any luck fixing the problem.

Lastly, I would very much like to "stick to the rock" and avoid politics.  Guess what?  A-holes pulled a gun on some friends of mine while leaving a rock club.  Kids that are shot don't get to grow up and rock. Rock stars that are shot on stage never make music again.  The fact is, sometimes you have to get involved with unpleasant things in order to protect the things you love.