A quote from Mr. Franklin Graham:
“Mr. President, you’re looking at the wrong place when it comes to the root cause of gun violence. Your executive actions will do nothing to change this horrific problem.
You can take all the guns in America and put them in a pile on the Mall in Washington DC, and those guns will stay there and will eventually rust and decay. Not one gun will crawl out of that pile and shoot or harm anyone. It takes a human being, and a human heart bent on evil, to pick up a gun, load it, and pull the trigger. The problem we have in this country is sin. We have a government that has taken God out of society.”
End Quote.
My response:
Mr. Graham, I think both President Obama and a whole lot of other intelligent people know that the root cause of gun violence is “human beings”. However, we, either as a society, or our government cannot “control” what a human being thinks (with their brain), nor how a human being feels (with their heart). We, ourselves, or even the government cannot make people go to church, we cannot make them “obey” God’s “laws” or “rules”, or “commandments”. There are various reasons for this, both logical as well as legal. This country and its constitution were created based on the concept of “separation of church from state”. It’s been this way for two hundred and forty years. Logically, we (the people), or again, the government, cannot make anyone stop thinking dangerous thoughts, or even thoughts of hate, of bigotry, of racism. It is not logical for one to think we can prevent mass killings by “putting God back into Society” (via our government).
What we (ourselves, and/or the government) can do is ‘control’ the instruments of death. These instruments could be knives, guns, rocks, bombs, etc. Long ago, the government realized the destructive power of explosives, whereupon a single device could potentially kill and/or maim dozens if not hundreds of people with a single device (“a weapon of mass destruction”). Therefore, our government created rules/laws to prevent the ordinary citizen from obtaining explosives and blasting caps, etc. Obviously, knives are not weapons of mass destruction. Neither are rocks. Guns, on the other hand, can be used, as a weapon of mass destruction. Before I explain a bit more regarding guns, let me state the following: I don’t believe it’s the president’s intention to “gather up all the guns”. I don’t think he has ever said that at any time or any place.
With that in mind, let’s get on the same page, regarding “guns”. There, of course, are many categories of “guns”. There are guns that are “semi-automatic”, which only allow a person to shot one bullet per trigger pull. Usually, these guns have a magazine of 6 to 10 bullets (with others having mags of almost double that quantity). On the other hand, there is a type of gun called an “assault rifle”. Usually, this is a weapon used by the military. As we all know, this type of gun, is “automatic”, which means, with a single trigger pull, twenty, thirty or maybe as many as forty bullets can be shot out of its barrel. They also can have a larger capacity of magazine, holding thirty or maybe as many as fifty bullets. This type of gun is a weapon of mass destruction, a machine whose entire purpose is to kill as many people as possible within seconds.
Originally, guns were (and sometimes still are) used to hunt animals to feed ourselves. However, they also started to be used to hurt or kill people, either on purpose (as the aggressor), or in order to protect ourselves (and, our families) from being hurt by others.
The purpose of an assault rifle is to hurt or kill as many people as quickly as possible. It is not used ever as a device to hunt animals for food. “It is a tool of war, never intended for (use by) civilians.”
The government from two hundred and forty years ago decided to allow it’s people to ‘bear arms’. That means, to ‘protect ourselves’ from others (and, perhaps, from our government, if ever needed). This right was given to us based on known gun technology at the time – a gun that shot one bullet at a time. No one at that time, could have imagined gun technology evolving such that a gun could be made to shoot thirty bullets a second.
Our president, and one group of people (the Democrats) in our government do not want to take away “all our guns”. They realize that people still need to protect themselves from others, in our homes. Handguns can be used for this. Of course, assault rifles could be used for this as well, but, realistically, I don’t think anyone would pick up an assault rifle in their home and try to shoot an intruder – they know there would be a potential of shooting their own family by accident.
So, in my opinion, our president is only wanting to “take” away the ability for ordinary citizens to own and/or purchase assault rifles – guns of mass destruction, of mass killing.
Yes, with regard to your statement of “you can take those guns…and they will stay there…not one gun will…shoot or harm anyone”, that is exactly the point of doing this. Those guns will be out of everyone’s hands, and hopefully, out of the hands of people who have dangerous thoughts in their heads, or mentally unbalance people, or just people who are bigoted, or racist, or those who are prejudiced against a person loving another person of the same gender, or loving a person of a different race, or loving a person of a different religion. We cannot “control” society and make them realize their thoughts are of hate, and not love. We cannot “force” them not to be prejudiced. We can, however, create laws letting people know that all human beings deserve to be treated equally – we did this first, with gender (Woman’s equality), then with race (Blacks: first, with slavery, and then racial discrimination laws in the ‘60s), and now, with homosexuality, and with transgendered individuals. We can, also, create laws to prevent ourselves from owning “guns of mass destruction”.
Yes, once these types of guns are “taken away”, these kinds of people will continue to kill. However, we, as a society, and as a government, has taken one method away (like we did with explosive devices). Yes, even though bombs are outlawed, there will be people who will find ways around those laws, in order to bring their hated to our society. But, you will notice, the use of bombs are far less than the use of assault rifles. Once assault rifles are banned, we will see the number of mass killings (by assault rifle) be significantly reduced.
Yes, again, these people who have such hatred in their hearts, or are mentally unbalanced – they will then seek other ways to do this type of killing. Who knows what they will come up with – however, once we see that new method of mass killing, we will then (or we should, as we should be doing now), take additional action to prevent it, by creating new laws regarding that new method.
(As an aside: Regarding those that then say that cars should then be outlawed as well – Cars were not invented to kill people – a car’s primary purpose is transportation – yes, are there people who have used cars to run down several people at a time? Yes. Again, in the majority of cases, mass killings are done by guns, not by cars.)
Yes, Mr. Graham, the root cause is people. However, we cannot “fix” the root cause. Yes, the problem we have in this country is “sin”. Sin exists, not only in our country, but in other countries as well. Sin has existed for two thousands years or more. Sin will always exist. No matter what we do. The reason why there aren’t a significant number of mass killings in other countries is not because that country has “less sin”, or are even “sinless”, it’s because they control their guns. It is not due to them living in a “society of god”.
Mr. Graham, It is not up to our president, nor our government, to put “God” back into society. That is up to our religious leaders, to our churches, to our families, or our friends. It is not up to our schools, nor to our government. It is not their place to do that. People, close to four hundred years ago, migrated here from England, because they wanted freedom – freedom to choose which religion to guide them, which god to love. They did not want to be told which religion to follow. More than two hundred and forty years ago, our country, our government, was formed, precisely because of those exact same reasons.
Mr. Graham, please do not force your religious views on those that do not want “religion” (or god) in their lives. Do not force “God” into our society. Allow us to choose it ourselves. Those that want God, have always been allowed to practice their religion in this country. Those that do not want god or religion in their lives – they also are allowed this – this is the basis of our country – the freedom to choose. The freedom to practice a religion or not. Do not force your religious views on those that do not want it – that is entirely against what is country is about – FREEDOM.
Besides, just because a person isn’t religious or may not believe in a god, that does not mean that person is bad, or evil, or will commit a mass killing. Mass killings have been committed not only by “godless” individuals, but also by people of god as well (including Christians).
Mr. Graham, let’s focus more on how to prevent mass killings by doing what we can (with the devices used during those mass killings), rather than focusing on forcing your religion onto the free people in this country – which, logically, isn’t something that will ever be achievable.
So, let’s do something that we can realistically achieve: let’s let our government create law(s) banning these assault rifles (and their magazines), these guns of mass destruction, of mass killing such that they are taken out of the hands of civilians, in order to reduce the number of mass killings that occur via this method, via this instrument of death. We did not need them in our lives before, and we do not need them in our lives now, or in the future.
Thank you.
