AN END TO VIOLENCE

Bath, Michigan School Bombing 1927 – Detroit Free Press

I don’t know the exact number; no one does. It’s estimated that there is a gun for every man, woman, and child living in the United States. That would be approximately three-hundred and fifty million guns. A number that continues to grow.

Today, in various cities across America people will be participating in marches demanding an end to gun violence. They have the right to do so.

I’d like to see an end to all violence.

Mass-murder generates headlines; however, in reality, it only makes up a small percentage of the number of people who die from gunshots on an annual basis. Some are by accident, but, the vast majority who are murdered are killed one at a time.

It stands to reason that guns are often used because they’re convenient. But, is it guns that cause people to be violent? The largest mass-murder of school children in the U.S. was done using dynamite and pyrotol. It occurred in a rural Michigan school district back in 1927.

Being possessed to do evil is a terrible thing. God says: to murder is evil. We were already well acquainted with murder when all we had was sticks and stones. It’s evil that’s the source of violence.

Be serious, banning the sale of specific guns won’t end gun violence. The only way you might end gun violence would be to repeal the Second Amendment and then somehow seize those three-hundred and fifty million guns without starting a war.

Quite frankly, if doing that didn’t start a war the Second Amendment serves no purpose anyway.

The First Amendment gives us the right to speak. There’s risk in a government letting its people speak; the people might say things the government doesn’t want heard. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution helps insure that the First is not interfered with. Without a means of enforcement, the “zone of free speech” would be as meaningless as simply declaring a place to be gun free, bomb free, or even violence free.

To protect freedom within a zone words aren’t sufficient; the zone must be made difficult to breech.

When a government is allowed to take away the right of the people to be armed, what line of defense remains to keep it from taking any other right?

Words on parchment can not guarantee freedom. They won’t guarantee that you can march, speak, or vote without the fear of violence. To maintain freedom you have to be willing to accept a certain amount of risk. You may have to fight for it.

Or, you could just do what you’re told.