Here is your real discussion on Gun Rights

Once again the 2nd Amendment is in the news. So many people are talking about why we can’t have a serious discussion about gun control. So here is it. Neither side has made a serious attempt to do anything. Why? Could it be that they don’t want to? I don’t have the hours it would take to do this research as I have a full time job, but I would be willing to bet that no subject brings in as much money to the political establishments as gun rights. Even more than abortion. It is such a hot button issue. Both sides need money to fight for whatever side they are on. Both sides know Americans will never give up their guns without a fight. But they can get a bunch of money claiming to fight for it. It is such an emotional topic. But as i said, Washington knows Americans will not give up their guns. It is a Right. Some people say it is our most important right. It protects the rest. The founding fathers knew it was vitally important to a free society. We have the 2nd Amendment not for hunting but to protect us from a tyrannical government. Think it can’t happen? 100 million people in the last 100 years have died at the hands of their government shortly after their government took their guns. But it would never happen here. It could. But it’s not because you are not taking our guns. Period. Many more people are killed with other weapons and nobody wants to ban those things. When you only focus in on guns, it makes it very suspicious what your motives are. The only weapon the government fears are guns. I would even go as far as to say right now they don’t fear the ballot box either. But I think that is starting to change. But that is a topic for another day.

So in order to have a serious discussion on gun violence, confiscating guns has to be off the table. It is not an option. Once we do that, the discussion becomes about violence. We have a problem with violence in this country. Nobody is going to dispute that. Many acts of violence can be traced back to two things. Mental health and missed or ignored warning signs. We are becoming a society that doesn’t pay any attention to each other. How many pictures do we see on social media with a group of people all looking down at our damn phones. And if we do see something, we are afraid to say anything. It is hard to suggest to someone that you are concerned about their mental health. How often after a tragedy does someone say that they were afraid “they would do something like that”. Or something similar. Contrary to popular belief, anyone who seeks mental health care will get it. The problem is getting them there. It is hard to get someone committed to a hospital. And it should be or anyone pissed off at someone could get them locked up. Wrongfully incarcerated for a mental health problem can screw up a persons life in a hurry. So it should be hard. But how hard is too hard? That is the real discussion we need to have. I don’t have any answers here. I’m just trying to start the right conversation.

But I am going to take this one step farther. I don’t think we can have a real discussion on the topic of violence without bringing up the sanctity of life. How can a society, that thinks it is civilized, get all worked up about a few thousand people killed with guns a year, kill millions of lives in the womb?