Thursday, January 08, 2015

My Two Cents: Guns v Cars

I’ve told this story before, but, well, Carlos posted something to Facebook about guns and got some vile responses so I’ll talk about it again.

It all began when we learned that Kroger stores in areas where open carry — being able to carry a gun, rifle, assault weapon openly in public — is legal, and one day, while shopping at our Kroger store, we expressed our displeasure at their policy.

We were told by the manager that what Kroger has is a ‘neutral policy’ on open carry which we then explained was really a ‘We don’t care’ or ‘We look the other way’ policy; we made the suggestion that maybe a sign could be posted in store windows asking that people refrain from bringing weapons into a grocery store when they stop for a carton of milk, and, again, we were told Kroger’s policy is neutrality.

Since then our policy has been to shop anywhere but Kroger because I have this aversion to asking someone to move their AK47 so I can get some eggs, but that’s just me ….

And, when on Facebook, I often repost stories from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America; I also reTweet some links from the group. Well, Carlos shared a photo from the group one day and was inundated with all kinds of gun nuts who basically told him to STFU … funny, they want their Second Amendment rights protected while seeking to deny Carlos his First Amendment rights but what do you expect from people who want to carry a loaded firearm into a grocery?

Anyway, one nut suggested that cars kills more people than guns and does Carlos want cars outlawed? I commented that with cars you have training and licenses before you drive, two things you don’t always find in the homes of gun nuts. I also said that, with cars, most people carry insurance, so that if they hurt, or goddess forbid, kill someone with their car there is some form of restitution to the victims. Not so much with guns; if you are shot by a gun nut because, well, their gun just happened to go off, or maybe someone nudged them or ... whatever ... there is no form of restitution for the victims.

Plus, and I’ll say this again: cars were not invented as a weapon; guns, however, were. And it bears repeating that people who own guns, who carry guns, intend to use them … to shoot at something; maybe a tin can on a fence post; maybe a deer in the woods; maybe a bird on the sky. But they intend to put a hole in something, or someone. People who drive cars are not intending to kill anyone.

Still, I don’t want guns taken away from people — at least not those people who are mentally sound and don’t have a criminal history; I understand some people feel the need to have a gun for protection; I get that.

But we need to remember that guns are designed to kill, or maim, or injure, while cars are designed to move us from place to place. If someone gets hit by a car, or hurt in a car accident, it’s because a mistake has been made; something’s gone wrong. If someone gets shot it because the gun was being used in the way in which it was intended.

Guns are for killing; cars are for driving. Big difference.

8 comments:

  1. Careful. Too much intelligence in a crazy argument can lead to unhappiness.

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  2. Anonymous11:53 AM

    Fortunately I live in a place where open carry is strictly verboten. But if I did live somewhere that had that policy I'd ask the owner of the gun if he was sure which end of the gun was the bad end.

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  3. TH grew up around guns, we have a slew of them in the house. He hunts, the kids hunt, and me as well.

    Having said that, TH has strict rules about guns and one of them was that the boys NEVER had toy guns to play with, EVER! Quote from TH, "Guns are NOT toys!"

    He thinks this craziness about carrying weapons into places of business, unless one is an officer of the law, is downright stupid and dangerous. Women carrying loaded guns in purses, with one in the chamber is beyond ignorant.

    As for me? I'm in total agreement with TH.

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  4. Bob, I couldn't agree with you more, with the proviso that one should always remember that a car can be a mobile coffin.

    That said, I was informed by a lady in Texas that she had a gun in EVERY room in the house, in case the bad guys came to get her when her husband was away. Was her husband a crime lord or an undercover cop? No, he was a captain in the USAF and so unlikely to be attacked by bad guys. The siege mentality is worrying.

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  5. Another excellent post. The comparison of guns to cars is a completely moronic one absent of any sort of logic.

    Aat the end of the day, I don't want to encounter either in the produce department of my local supermarket.

    "Stupid people piss me off!" - Eric Cartman

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