COMMENTARY|| With President Obama working toward stricter gun control laws come numerous Facebook anti gun control postings. Some make a little sense. Some are ridiculous. Others are just comic relief. Guess which one I'd like to talk about.
This one:
“On his inauguration, President Obama will be protected by the Secret Service, 11,500 soldiers and 4,000 police officers. They have armor and automatic weapons. No one is assigned to protect my family.”
Accuracy check:
First of all, please keep in mind that this is a Facebook post. There is no guarantee that the statistics are correct. Plus, even if they are....
Let's talk about you:
You are not the President of the United States of America.
While it's true that we average Americans do face serious threats from time to time, those threats are not on the scale that the president and his family face daily.
It's not your inauguration day, is it?
If it were, you would be well protected, just like the president, and glad of it.
You don't really need that AK47, do you?
You hardly need automatic weapons to protect your family or hunt for game. If you do and that's how you roll, I feel sorry for the deer and your family.
You don't seem to like the president much.
All the more reason for him to be protected.
Now, let's talk about the president:
*He didn't ask for protection. It came with the job.
*It's a dangerous job.
*All presidents get protection.
*Presidential protection is not exclusive to the presidents you don’t like.
Let's get real, people:
Nobody wants to take away your hunting rifle or any other reasonable means of personal protection. That includes the president. Gun control laws are intended to protect you from people who should not be trusted with weapons, not to take away your freedom to carry them yourself.
So, what is the president actually proposing?
Here is that breakdown again. Go ahead. Check it out. There is absolutely nothing in there about taking away the right of law abiding citizens to bear arms. Nothing at all. Plus, there are more than a few suggestions you might actually agree with, if you bothered to read it.
One such surprise:
“Obama said there should be exceptions for cases like certain transfers among family members and temporary transfers for hunting purposes.”
Another popular argument against gun control:
*Criminals will get guns anyway.
Rapists will rape, despite the fact that it is illegal. Murderers will kill, despite the fact that it's illegal. Criminals have a way of finding their way around any law. You'll get no argument from me on that. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have laws against rape or murder, does it? Of course not.
Think about this:
Without gun control laws, any individual can buy any kind of gun they want, anytime without fear of prosecution, a background check or any questions asked. Is that what you really want?
The difference is:
With gun control laws in place, you might have to go through a little more when buying weapons. Still, if you are the upstanding citizen you claim to be, you will be able to obtain your weapons legally. So, what is the problem? Well, for you, there is no problem.
Unless, of course, you are a criminal.
*If you're trying to obtain a weapon, but can't pass a background check, either due to mental health issues or your criminal background you may have a problem.
*If you are looking to purchase a weapon that holds more than ten round of ammunition at once, or is designed to penetrate bullet proof vests, you may have a problem.
*If you are supplying a criminal with a weapon, you may have a problem.
If you're not a criminal:
If you are an average, law abiding citizen of sound mental health, with no criminal background, the new gun control laws will leave you unscathed. That is, unless you are trying to supply, purchase or smuggle in a weapon for a criminal, or purchasing armor piercing bullets or an automatic weapon.
You're not doing that, are you?
So, as it turns out, the average citizen has nothing to fear from the proposed gun control laws. Surprise! Like most regulations, they're designed to catch criminals or prevent them from having an easy time committing crimes. Will some criminals get away with things anyway? Yes, because they always do. But maybe, just maybe, the one criminal who would have had a gun pointed at you or your family member will not. And that, my friend, makes all the difference.
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