My %&@*# $0.02 worth!

Ok, so I don't get angry easily. Anger is an emotion that really doesn't do anyone any good. Especially me.

But these mass killings by crazy people are getting to me.

I also realize that I'm more likely to be killed in a simple traffic accident than gunned down while sitting at a school, gas station, or restaurant. But still, why are we continuing to let this go on?

Because we haven't got any idea how to stop it! Our so called experts hem and haw over Second Amendment rights, the NRA says "You'll have to pry my gun out of my cold dead fingers," and the pacifists say, "if we didn't have guns, there wouldn't be mass shootings."
Ok, so what is the answer? We have a Columbine High School, or a Virginia Tech, or a small Amish school, or 2 snipers in the D.C. area, or workplace killings where lots of people are killed for no good reason. There are others I could mention, but you get the idea. How many more people will live in fear of being on the receiving end of a whacked-out person living their very own First-Person-Shooter fantasy? Apparently all of us!

I have an idea of a solution, one that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Since there are over 300 million, yes MILLION, hand guns in the United States, we aren't going to be getting rid of them any time soon. We will continue to endure gun murders, mass shootings, assassinations, and crimes of passion committed by ordinary people who have become desensitized about killing, death and murder. How did they become that way? Many ways... Network news, War, violent video games, violent movies, violent TV shows, local crimes, poverty, road rage... Need I go on? Somehow American society has become fascinated with killing, death and murder. And I'm not blaming the media, they only give us more of what we ask for... or what we seem to be watching to sell advertising.

How do we stop the killing? According to the politicians, the NRA, and just about everyone else I've talked to, we don't. We endure it. And we will have to continue to endure massacre after massacre.

Well here's my radical little idea to at least change the odds:

Since we can't take the hand guns away from law-abiding U.S. citizens or (il)legal immigrants, crooks, gang-bangers, felons, convicted murderers etc., (remember there are 300 million of them in our peace-loving country) why not just ensure that everyone has one? Oh, and that everyone knows how to use them. How hard could it be? After all, we have programs now to feed the hungry or poor, and train them to better themselves. So why not government gun use programs? Government gun issue? Since our governments, police forces, vigilante groups and home-grown militias can't stop one person with a death wish, why not have everyone carry hand guns for protection? And change the laws that will allow you to be absolved of any wrongdoing if you "shoot back." Why not government training programs for the masses on how to keep, shoot, clean, and maintain a hand gun? How much money would that take away from the ill-fated Iraq/Afghanistan (soon to be Iran if we "stay the course") war?

I predict that in the first few years of mandatory hand gun laws we would have a lot of people killed. There would be a swift societal change. We U.S Citizens would still have our precious Second Amendment right to bear arms, and quite swiftly we would have a very well-mannered society. After all, if you ticked the wrong person off, they could shoot you. Let's not forget that women are usually better shots than men, and we would have to respect them as well... Instant ERA, eh Ladies?
Everyone would be able to carry at any time. That would make the air plane hijackers wary, wouldn't it? They might be able to crash a plane, but they would be full of bullet holes before they did!
Also if people carried everywhere, everywhere would be protected, wouldn't it? Always lethal force around to protect ourselves.

Let's look at the bright side, after about 5 to 10 years, the good people of the U.S. would have weeded out the crazy people who want to kill others, and if someone did try to pull a massacre, there would be plenty of people in the crowd who would shoot back. Much less loss of life. If after the first or second person was shot, 15 people returned fire, well, the numbers of dead and wounded would be less anyway. Oh, and lots of savings of tax-payer dollars from not having to prosecute and jail these crazy people.

Even the pacifists who don't want to carry a gun would be able to make that choice, just as they do now. All they have to do is act like they are carrying and who would know differently?

I don't really want to carry a gun. It isn't in my nature to want to. Just the way I am. But do I want to live in a safe society? Yes. Is America safe? No. Will it ever be safe? No. Was it ever safe? No. What do I tell my children when they ask why our government can't keep us safe from ourselves? Well, in the United States, the people ARE the government, and there is no safety from ourselves.
Sleep tight kids.