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Monday, December 03, 2012

No, it's not just as easy

I see my conservative, gun-loving friends are up in arms about Bob Costas interrupting their fucking football to preach about gun violence.  Now, I haven't seen or heard one word of what Costas had to say -- and in general I'm of a mind that I don't want politics mixed with my sports or my rock concerts, etc -- but I will still applaud him for having the balls to try to interject some sanity into this situation, albeit likely falling on deaf ears.
What really burns my ass is the assertion that Belcher could have as easily killed his girlfriend and himself if he didn't have a gun.  Bullshit!  You can make a snap, rash, out-of-your-mind decision to kill someone and if you have a gun handy, you can execute that thought without a chance to take it back.  A bullet is much more sudden and deadly than your other options.  (and by the way, I'm not going to expound on the thought that guns don't kill people, just like nuclear weapons don't kill people -- leave that for another day)  With a gun, especially the semi-automatic favorites of today, you can kill someone with the second or third bullet fired less than a second after the first...no time for it to sink in what you've done before it's too late.
If all you have at your disposal is a knife or your bare hands, for instance, it's a whole lot more personal and difficult to fully and completely carry out your momentary insane instinct to kill someone.  You have to thrust that knife into their body from a very close distance and likely will have to repeat the act of stabbing.  And strangling someone is even more up close and personal and time consuming.  All the time these options take is time you might come to your senses and stop; and then instead of remorsefully killing yourself for what you've done, your remorse might actually help you save that person's life, to say nothing of your own.
So just color me disappointed, but not the least bit surprised, that the people who most need to hear an opposing opinion on this matter heard nothing but a dog whistle warning about taking away their god-damn guns.  They're selfish and always will be...they'd rather have their guns that ever contemplate what a safer world it would be for everyone, not just them and their loved ones, if their were a whole lot less of them out there (even though I realize we're long beyond the point of return)
Just to prove the point (although some people are allergic to logic) I'll give you two scenarios:  Scenario one, two people are together and neither of them has a gun.  Scenario two, two people are together and at least one of them has a gun.  In which scenario is someone much more likely to die?  And if both people have guns, you're much more likely to die than you are safer.  And don't give me that shit about people being able to make mature decisions.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you on this. I did not watch last night's game and missed what Costas said, but with a gun killing is impersonal because you don't need to face the victim or have them know your presence to pull the trigger.

Brent said...

I agree with you 100%. People take the stupid thought that everybody having guns is better than nobody having guns.

And another dog whistle was heard by those nutso conservatives when the U.S. vetoed a UN treaty about disabilities which is based upon the Americans with disabilities act. Something about the U.N. taking over governments and America's free will.

Zebster said...

Great piece by Charlie Pierce, who I read as often as possible, on this topic.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/bob-costas-jovan-belcher-gun-control-120412?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_5689895

Deb said...

Well written. I agree with everything you've said.

Carolyn said...

Well said.. While we will hear over and over that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," it >is< so much "easier" to kill with a gun. so much less up front and personal... and that really does need to be said.... over and over as well.... We can point out that if George Zimmerman had not had a gun, he wouldn't have had a second thought about following the instruction of the 911 operator and waiting for the police to handle it... We can talk about the latest shooting in Florida. We know that the man who didn't like the music choice (and let's face it, it wasn't about whether the music was loud, anyone under age 70 has blasted music at 100 db at least once) would have left in a hurry, mumbled under his breath about how much better music was years ago... and that would have been the end of it... So, while guns may not kill people... access to guns sure makes killing people too easy...