Singing To The Converted

"Frightened citizens sheltered with no means to defend themselves. How many Bostonians wish they had a gun two weeks ago? How many other Americans now ponder that life or death question?
"Lying in wait right now is a terrorist, a deranged school shooter, a kidnapper, a rapist, a murderer waiting and planning and plotting in every community across our country, lying in wait right now"
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president, National Rifle Association, U.S.

Of the 340-million people in the United States, it is highly likely that almost three-hundred-million would eschew the right to bear arms for the purpose of personally tracking down supposed killers in their midst. The United States is a civilized country, due process of law is vital to its honour and its reputation, its respect for justice and its commitment to law and order. Wayne LaPierre boasts that the lobby group he represents will soon have ten million members.

The 'bad' people who illegally have possession of firearms and spend all their time plotting attacks on the 'good' people who legally own firearms, must be confronted before they are able to commit their atrocities on the innocent. How does one confront someone you don't even know exists, much less is busy plotting crimes of mass murder? Presumably, you take great care to take along with you wherever you venture, an reliable arsenal of weapons which will enable you to respond swiftly to any threatening situations.

Perhaps discovering, when a threat has been perceived and responded to, that no threat existed at all, and innocent people, who were assumed to be 'bad' have been looked after by armed thugs who have been dispatched through vigilante action to protect the community. Trayvon Martin, a young black man in Florida was shot to death by community volunteer George Zimmerman, who took him for a thug. Such suppositions are fallacious and their fallout fatally irreversible.

The National Rifle Association, regardless, is eager to cite instances where armed homeowners have acted in self-defence against the incursions of home invaders, righteously proving without a scintilla of doubt that one must be prepared to react against all instances of supposed and actual invasions of personal space and with armed resolve, when encountering potential threats to body and soul.

"The freedom of all mankind is at stake", right-wing television/radio host Glenn Beck told NRA members at their "Stand and Fight Rally". "They feel they must regulate us until we comply, but I will not comply. Weapons will always find their way into the hands of bad people, always. But we must declare this, that guns must remain in the hands of good people." Obviously, members of the National Rifle Association are the good people.

Those who oppose their standards of social responsibility and reasonableness are most obviously the bad people, though they are the greater majority.