Happy Friday everyone! I hope you are having a great day before Christmas is here. As usual, it’s time to cover another topic at “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff”. Today’s topic will be my general thoughts on the debate on guns in the U.S. Like every other article on this site, your mileage may vary – you may have other opinions on this topic. And seeing how heated this debate is and how passionate some of the arguments are on both sides, this is a must have. But enough with the disclaimers and whatnot, time to dive into the topic at hand.
As many of us can recall, gun debates have been happening all across the U.S. Not just simple ones, but serious ones. As in whether if people should have guns at home or should be prohibited from carrying or owning a gun. One of the proponents’ (for having guns) arguments is that guns are needed for self-defense and without them, security will decrease. On the other hand, opponents say that it will be misused and people will go crazy. On both sides, cries of government doing too much or too little and people’s rights being violated are thrown into this heated debate. It has gotten so huge that even state and government officials fight for either side – leading to some states having different gun regulations. But, one of the main problems of this major argument is that many people cite that gun regulations have a black or white morality or something related to this. When in reality, morality with guns is more or less in shades of gray.
Guns have a proper usage and an improper usage. They can be used for hunting and self-defense or they can be used for criminal acts. Yet, the main problem is with the person, not the gun itself. The gun is just a tool and therefore, has no morality attached to it – it doesn’t make any decision. Rather, it just follows the demands of the wielder. On the other hand, the person holding the gun has a morality and acts by him/herself – in other words, he or she is sentient. Thus, he/she has the ability to follow the right path, follow the wrong path, or most commonly, follow a mix of the paths. They can make the gun a tool of benefit or a tool of death and destruction. So, if politicians wanted to eradicate the gun problem, the best solution would be to fix the nature of human beings – an impossible task. But, the main point is that, the human, not the gun chooses to make a decision, and that decision is most of the time, morally gray. Therefore, gun debates cannot use the saying that there are only good and bad ways to use a gun. There is a proper usage but, when used with other people of shady morality, the “correct” decision becomes hard to determine.
For example, let’s say a criminal were to break in a home and threaten the residents with a loaded gun. In this case, if someone had a gun and was willing to the protect his fellow residents, then he had permission to take out the intruder for the sake of saving more lives. Here, the decision taken was not sparkly clean (in most morality systems and religions, killing is generally wrong) but, he averted a possibly more tragic outcome of many or all people being killed. Imagine if guns were restricted and not allowed – the outcome will have been totally different and would be based more upon the criminal’s morality. So, the argument and belief of the usage of guns having a black and white morality is completely false. Nothing in life is completely right or wrong – sometimes people cannot even tell what some decisions’ outcomes will be.
So what can we do to fix this issue? Well, first off, education is a must. Most of the time, people who argue in this debate are misguided due to not having a clear viewpoint or an open mind. Fixing a closed-mind may prove tough to accomplish, but the main point would be to educate the masses on both sides of this issue. People can demonstrate how morality for guns, as with everything else, is gray, not purely right or wrong. But most importantly, emphasize that the debates aren’t bad in themselves - it is just the miscommunication and misinformation that are bad. Proper gun laws have to be put in place to make the country better. However, it must be done in the proper way so it balances the right of the people and the safety of our society. Of course, any change will bring controversy and outrage. But, it’s just that we, the people of our nation, how will have the final say on this topic and how the nation will move forward in the years to come.
Thanks once again for staying with me folks. I hope you enjoyed my general insights into the gun debate. The topic is more complicated than what it appears to be. But, this provides a brief look in what needs to be improved or fixed. Well then, like usual, comments, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated. I hope you all have a great Christmas beginning tomorrow! This is Delvarian from “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff” signing off! Have a wonderful holiday!
