Have you had enough yet? No? Just how much blood would have to be shed at one time to convince you? How many innocent people have to be dispatched in one brutal action before you decide to do something? Thirty-two wasn't enough? How about forty? One hundred? One thousand? Maybe you'll never be convinced until someone blows a hole in someone you love. Can you picture it? Your wife or mother or husband or father or child laying on the sidewalk with half their head missing? A rather brutal image, isn't it? But that's reality for the families of thirty-two people in Virginia.
So you say you need handguns for protection? Well guess what? If you own a handgun, it's forty times more likely that it will be used kill to a member of your household than it will be used to defend against an intruder. Buy a handgun, have it used against you. Not very protective, is it?
It's a basic constitutional right, you say? Really? The right to bear arms, you say. Excellent. Where's my Cruise Missile? I can't have one, you say? Things like machine guns, hand grenades, F-16 fighters and nuclear weapons are not allowed to the average citizen, and I don't see the NRA arguing in favor of free ownership of these things. Why? They are too dangerous, and we as a people are willing to make that exception to the 2nd amendment for our own safety. Well, handguns are also too dangerous. Ask anyone on the campus of Virginia Tech, or Columbine, or any of these places:
29 Jul 1999 Atlanta, GA, USA 12 killed
16 Oct 1991 Killeen, TX, USA 23 killed
18 Jun 1990 Jacksonville, FL 9 killed
20 Aug 1986 Edmond, OK, USA 14 killed
18 Jul 1984 San Ysidro, CA, USA 21 killed
01 Aug 1966 Austin, TX, USA 16 killed
And that is hardly a complete list.
So what are handguns good for? Self protection? Nope. Hunting? Nope. Killing people? That's pretty much it. I hate to go to Lynyrd Skynyrd for my gun quotes but, people, they ain't no good for nothin' else.
Just ban them, collect them off the streets, send people to long jail sentences for possessing them. If someone wants to go on a killing spree, make them carry a big huge rifle at least four feet long that can't hold more than three rounds. Ever go deer hunting? Nobody ever gets three shots at the same deer, so hunting rifles don't even need to hold three shots. Having a big long weapon with only three rounds won't stop all murders, but it would make it so much harder to kill a lot of people at once. And right now, killing a lot of people is just too easy to do.
Ban handguns. Now. Write, email, harass your members of congress. If they want to shake your hand and garner your vote, make them listen to you first.
Ban handguns. Now.
