A Confederate Yankee
By Bill Mayers
(Town of Sullivan, NY – March 2013) It’s been refreshing, over the past few weeks, to see a variety of thoughtful, respectful commentary on gun control, in contrast to the rabid, nonsensical bellowing from the far right. It gives a guy hope, though it certainly won’t happen overnight, that reasonable, responsible tightening of firearms legislation is coming.
More and more, people are coming to the realization that we all have a right to be free from fear of guns.
That fear is justified: the majority of firearms-related deaths in this country are the result of misuse of firearms by those very same law-abiding citizens the NRA leadership so self-righteously points to. There’s a statistic many gun advocates don’t like to hear: the presence of a firearm, particularly a handgun, in the home vastly increases the likelihood that someone who belongs in that home – someone who lives with the gun owner – will be killed with that gun by its owner.
So-called “patriot militias” have increased in numbers over the last four years, as unreasoned fears grow. They rant about keeping military-style firearms in order to keep the government afraid of its citizens, as terroristic a threat as any heard from al-Quaida or North Korea.
There are more than 1,600 such groups tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Most are found in the far western areas of the country. Some of them are relatives of mine. And when one asks why they’re so upset, their answers reveal confusion, misunderstanding and, yes, an oft-times seriously childish attitude.
As kids, we loved to play Cowboys ‘n Indians and Cops ‘n Robbers. Some of these folks have not outgrown that. Others are willfully ignorant. But they can be persuaded of the errors in their thinking.
The problem isn’t just guns. It’s our culture. Some 70 to 80 million of us see a need to own firearms. More than adolescent thrills, millions of us see the things as defense against fear – fear of criminals, fear of government overreach.
Tyranny and the destruction of individual rights have been a curse of peoples everywhere; we need to find ways to reassure gun advocates that government is not the enemy.
Fears of home invasions and personal attacks are not without reason. We need to find ways to reassure people that the best defense against personal assault or home invasion is a well-trained and well-equipped police force and not ever-more guns in private hands.
The government is not after you, folks.
In a recent newspaper column, a gentleman who holds a more favorable view of unrestricted gun ownership attempts to provide solutions to ghastly crimes such as the Sandy Hook massacre. Some of his thoughts are quite reasonable. Some, unfortunately, are mere flights of fancy without the technology to make them, and some of them are impossibly expensive.
More than this is the fact that we actually do enforce the laws we have, and there isn’t a vast liberal conspiracy amongst the judiciary.
Bottom line: the measures we’ve taken in the past aren’t working. Slaughter with guns has surpassed the rate of automobile accident deaths. It’s way past time to take stronger measures and to make them uniform across state borders.
We don’t have to seize all privately-held firearms, but we do need to be firm about it; tell your legislators to get serious.
William D. “Bill” Mayers RT, RN, of Sullivan is a retired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since 1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered Professional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He has four children, two stepchildren, two grandchildren and is an avid analyst of current events.
Awww Walt Disney couldn’t have come up with a nicer sounding fairy tale. “Fears of home invasions and personal attacks are not without reason. We need to find ways to reassure people that the best defense against personal assault or home invasion is a well-trained and well-equipped police force and not ever-more guns in private hands.” I have never heard a bigger line of fairy tale nonsense than this. In the magical fairy tale world this guy lives i the police and government will always be there to protect you…Just ask the Katrina victims how well that was done or the NYC citizens protecting themselves with bow and arrows because they can’t have guns and the police in NYC did such a great job during this last blizzard they had. and these fairy tale statistics” Slaughter with guns has surpassed the rate of automobile accident deaths” Really? lol BS! Could we see where you are getting your statistics please? Those are defintely from Disney 🙂
Yes definitely give all the power over to the Government. They are alwayyyys here to help you. The Government knows best. Whatever is said by the Government is always true.They just want you to be safe. Turn over all your guns to them so th police can protect you. Hitler said the same thing. No thanks. I’ll trust myself.
the government might not be out to get you but the
criminals sure are
what happened to that poor woman and her child who
were kidnapped at the mall might have been different if she was carrying a weapon
WE are obligated to protect ourselves and our loved ones….no one else
the police are usually there to pick up the pieces
after something has happened to us
if you think you arent at risk in the parking lot of any store or mall, the criminals have already succeeded!
be careful out there!