(Source: Thumbs & Ammo)
The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791.
A time when:
- The US population was 4M people
- Women couldn't vote
- Blacks were slaves
- Semi-automatic weapons did not exist
- Columbine High School, let alone Colorado, had yet to be discovered
- Use in a militia did not include gangs, extremist groups or the mentally disturbed
Should the same rules apply today as in 1791? Probably not.
As of 2009, there were an estimated 310 million guns in the United States, not including weapons owned by the military. That's more than 1 per person.
- 114M handguns
- 110M rifles
- 86M shotguns
If you saw those stats for another country on the US Department of State site, you'd expect a travel alert & hopefully enough time to cancel your travel plans.
A few weeks ago, the Senate rejected a bipartisan plan to expand background checks for gun buyers online & at gun shows.
Background checks are common procedure to screen potential employees and contractors, but apparently it's unnecessary to screen someone before they buy a gun. A gun that can easily kill another person.
I understand that there are some logical arguments for owning a gun, depending on your location and circumstance in the United States. Those examples are the minority; they should not be used to justify an unwieldy & dangerous gun policy that endangers US citizens.
Need more convincing? Check out this 3 part series by John Oliver on The Daily Show.
No comments:
Post a Comment