A friend of mine, whom I have a lot of respect for as a person, and I were having a very great discussion on Facebook about the gun issue in general. He made a very good post that I am going to share, along with my response to it. To bring the context of this into light I have left the screen shot of it, starting with my response to a piece of literature he posted opining if the mass shooting in Orlando was actually done by multiple gunman. Essentially this piece said that for a man to kill 50 and wound 50 others in a matter of minutes was so insane and so far-fetched that there is no way one single shooter could have done so. My personal feelings for conspiracy theories aside, this is a valid thing for one to think. It is crazy, the amount of destruction that was able to occur. This, sadly, is also one of the heated points of discussion this country. Why should anybody be able to carry such destructive tools?
Also, please note in the picture above I have blanked out my friend’s name and picture. I respect this man and even more I respect his privacy. I’ve even messaged him this blog post after submission asking his permission to use it. If he does not want me using this, I will promptly delete this post. Just my disclaimer.
Anyways, I wrote a lengthy response I would like to share, because ultimately many of the points I bring up are many of the same points being brought up across the nation. He also did make great points, truthfully, in his post. It is refreshing to have a civil discussion with another person about such a terrible and heated issue.
Right now insanity IS the norm. So far this year we’ve had over 130 mass shootings. That is averaging about 3 a week. The year isn’t even over.
15 years ago 3000 people died one morning. We didn’t take away box cutters or planes BUT we starting screening the heck out of anybody getting on a plane, this is why everybody complains so much about the TSA. Post 9/11 the regulations to get on a plane skyrocketed. Somebody tried to blow up his shoe to get on a plane, now we all have to take our shoes off at the airport.
The Titanic sank because of nature. We cannot ban nature. Icebergs, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. will always exist. We have, however, created rules and regulations to make passenger ships safer, with mandatory safety and evacuation plans.
Creating smart, reasonable gun laws isn’t changing the game, at all, either. In Major League Baseball a few 2b players got injured due to take-out slides. Guess what the MLB did, despite players, coaches, fans, etc. being very vocally against it? This year they enacted a ban on take-out slides. They also did it a few years ago with collisions at home plate after a few high profile catcher injuries. They updated with the times, and guess what? Baseball is still great! 🙂
Our gun laws are a mess and they’re inconsistent state by state. With Omar, he was on the Do Not Fly list, but the FBI couldn’t legally do anything about it. There was a push to ensure that people on the DNF list couldn’t purchase firearms in ANY state. The NRA cried foul and the NRA backed politicians wouldn’t even let any of those bills get out of committee.
We regulate the crap out of cars, too. Is it a perfect system? NO! People still die. But guess what we have now that we used to not have? Mandatory seat belt laws. No texting while driving laws. No drinking and driving laws. Speed zones for different areas, depending on risk (i.e. you can only go 20 mph past East High School during certain times of the day). Obviously NO system is going to be perfect, but we have to do our best to ensure the MOST safety. There is no 100% safe method, but that doesn’t mean don’t try.
My personal feelings about pot and the “war on drugs” in general aside, too. We make drugs illegal. Yes, it doesn’t 100% solve the issue. It does, however, make it harder to gain access to drugs. Drugs are also way more expensive. Marijuana is fairly cheap in states such as Colorado and Washington, but prices have remained the same (so I hear) in states such as Minnesota.
Again, no system is perfect. Just because “somebody can still do it” even though it is illegal doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. There is still a problem with child prostitution, but I doubt any sane minded individual would be against creating a law that said it is illegal to pimp a child (or anybody) out, correct? It is NO DIFFERENT with any sort of crime. What happens when you make it illegal is that you make it harder to do. Sick pieces of garbage cannot just openly pimp out children on Victory Drive. There was just a child prostitution sting here in Mankato that netted three arrests. Laws made that possible. Is child prostitution still a HUGE problem in southern MN? Yes! At least we’re trying though.
Bottom line, though, is right now there are only two options being floated around to something we can all admit is a problem. Option one is to create reasonable gun laws. Option two is to continue to do nothing. So please, if you have any other reasonable, viable options, please speak up. I and the rest of the world would be more than happy to listen to ANYTHING that could potentially help this situation. Also, good guy with a gun isn’t a viable option. More guns isn’t a viable option.
I made sure to go through every point, piece by piece. Please let me know your opinions. I welcome them all, even if we disagree, just so long as we can be civil. If anybody out there has any other reasonable ideas to fix this terrible issue, please, we need to know.
trevorbwg 
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