On Friday, December 14, 2012,  twenty innocent children were executed by a deranged man who first murdered his gun advocate mother in their home, took her legally purchased weapons of mass destruction and went to a near by school and killed six and seven year old first-graders. The anger I feel is only dwarfed by the frustrations I have knowing that due to the political strength of the National Rifle Association, this sort of thing is not only becoming more frequent, it’s becoming easier for the deranged and the only outrage you will hear from those who say they support Second Amendment Rights is the fear that people will use this incident to take their guns away. They are so concerned over myths propagated by the NRA, they leave little concern or outrage for the vile act that occurred. The old stale talking points begin to surface yet again:

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

“If you take guns away, only criminals will have guns”

“People can use knives and bats to kill too, so why not ban them?”

“Only the Second Amendment keeps this country safe from oppressive government.”

“They all want to take your guns away.”

“If more people were armed, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Towns with strict gun control laws have just as many gun related murders as any other place.”

Well, this is all just pure bullshit.

First of all, all of this talk comes from the NRA. Here’s what people need to understand about this organization as it stands today. It’s run by lying paranoid nut jobs. Okay, that’s hyperbole, but I’m angry.

In reality the NRA is a lobbyist organization with gun and ammunition manufacturers as their clientele. They say they exist to protect Second Amendment Rights, and that would be a worthy cause if the rights were ever in real danger. They are not and never have been.

Never in the history of this nation has any viable political party advocated taking guns away from everybody. There is debate on the true meaning of the Second Amendment, but that’s only for people who actually read and study for a living correcting the propaganda perpetuated by the NRA.

Either way, gun control advocates don’t want to take guns away from everybody, only some and introduce strict methodology to ensure the wrong people don’t get the weapons and certain type of weapons of mass destruction do not fill the streets.

The NRA says they are protecting Second Amendment Rights. That’s a lie. In fact they are creating an atmosphere of fear, paranoia and mistrust to compel the easily gullible to go out and buy as many guns, and as much ammunition as possible. That way, their clients clean up with huge profits.

A prime example of this misinformation from the NRA? They continue to tell their membership that President Obama is out to take all their guns away. They even have gone so far to say he will do it in a “third term” as president. Now the facts are as of today, President Obama has yet to propose, or side with any legislation that would limit access to guns in any way at all. In fact, he’s signed legislation allowing guns to be brought to National Parks. He’s actually expanded gun rights in the nation. But according to the NRA, that’s all part of his plan to fool the people so he can later take the guns away. If that’s not paranoid thinking, I don’t know what is.

I do own guns. I used to target shoot and I still have one in the home locked away. I do not keep a cache of ammunition because I am realistic. If people are going to declare war on me and attack, having one or two guns I won’t be able to get too many shots off before I’m taken out. But that assuming somebody is going to declare war on me and attack. The odds of that happening to me, or anybody else for that matter, are less than winning the Powerball.

So I have no problems with gun ownership. I have never been arrested or convicted of any crime. As a law enforcement officer, I have passed a psychological evaluation. I have been fully trained on nomenclature, and I qualify on the range. I also understand that whatever the barrel of a gun is pointed at is apt to be destroyed if the trigger is pulled.

As a gun control advocate, all I ask for is that those with criminal records, those who have a history of mental health problems be excluded from gun ownership.

To do so, I believe in waiting periods to investigate who is buying a weapon and that the weapon and ammunition be registered for future reference should it turn out they are used in any crimes. It’s that simple. If you aren’t out to murder someone immediately and have no prior record or mental health issues, why should you need less than a week or so before taking the gun home?

However, the NRA is opposed to waiting periods and any form of registration. Thanks to the NRA, anyone can sell and anyone can purchase high power rifles and guns at any gun show without identification and it’s clearly legal as Fast and Furious pointed out. Again, the NRA isn’t out for responsible gun ownership, they want unobstructed gun sales to as many people as they can. More guns sold, more profit. How do you increase gun sales? Establish an atmosphere of fear and paranoia. That is their business model. Problem is by doing so; there are more guns out there than we really need by many people who have no business owning an instrument designed to kill.

As for the talking points listed at the top of this rant:

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” This is true but people owning guns have a much easier time killing than if they didn’t. To follow this talking point to its logical conclusion, then people so inclined to kill shouldn’t have guns. However, the NRA is opposed to that because it disrupts sales. Besides, more people out there killing people with guns, the more people feel a need to buy guns to “protect themselves” though few of them ever go through the proper training to do so and usually whenever caught in such a situation are killed by their own weapon.

“If you take guns away, only criminals will have guns.” This is based on a false premise. Nobody is trying to take all the guns away; they want to take the guns away from the criminals. Enacting stricter gun control laws would only cause a temporary inconvenience for the law-abiding rational people from getting their guns as quickly as they want. To not have these controls actually does result in more criminals and irrational people from getting guns. So by not enacting such controls, more criminals are getting guns, not less.

“People can use knives and bats to kill too, so why not ban them?” People can kill using knives and bats. Only difference is you must get up close to do it and the victim has a fighting chance to avoid being killed. Further, you can only do it to one person at a time. Try attacking a crowded theater armed with a bat and see how effective you would be.

“Only the Second Amendment keeps this country safe from oppressive government.” Well that presupposes our government is apt to become oppressive. A couple of things, oppression is a relative term and didn’t I mention paranoia earlier? If our government was to become oppressive, then how are a small group of drinking buddies armed with a few rifles and handguns going to stop the largest best armed and trained military force in the history of the world? A military with unmanned drones? You wouldn’t last 5 minutes so get real.

“They all want to take your guns away.” Only if you are a criminal and/or mentally insane. If you feel this way, you just answered my point. Again, didn’t I mention paranoia earlier?

“If more people were armed, this wouldn’t have happened.” The best trained military and police departments in the world end up with people dying in fire-fights in many cases due to “friendly fire.” Shooting at a target on a range is one thing; it’s another when the target is shooting back. Further, trained armed professional have to psych themselves as to how to maintain composure while being shot at. It isn’t easy and not too many weekend warriors actually prepare for that. More people armed, more people killed. It’s that simple.

“Towns with strict gun control laws have just as many gun related murders as any other place.” This is true, but there is a good reason for that. Towns, cities, counties and states are not divided up by tall walls and moats. People coming from neighboring territories that have no gun control easily take these guns to areas where sales are restricted. You will note also that currently, with the growth of carry conceal and stand your ground laws coupled with even laxer gun sales laws, the incidents of mass gun murders have been increasing, not decreasing. Currently, the United States, the country with the most lax gun control laws has 19 times the gun murder rate of any industrialized nation in the world. The rate holds for jurisdictions with or without carry conceal.

As the title of this rant states “Enough Already.” We need a mature debate in this country about gun violence and serious means to address it using proven data, not the talking points designed to instill paranoid fear from the gun manufacturer lobby known as the NRA who also support cop killer bullets, unrestricted assault rifle sales, and allowing guns to be carried in school yards and bars. These lobbyist are nuts. Worse yet, they are domestic terrorists.