This week's current event seems like a good segway into this week's rant: gun control. While I've never personally affected by gun control or lack thereof, it's an important issue to me because there's always the chance that it could affect me (god knows I've spent enough time in seedy DC neighborhoods).
My stance on gun control is that you should be able to have a shotgun, rifle or whatever for hunting, defending yourself against burglars or whoever, or whatever else you can do with a firearm. You do not need a handgun. You do not need an automatic weapon. You can scare a burglar away just as easily with a shotgun. What are you going to do with a handgun besides shoot someone? Shoot a deer? Probably not. Same goes for an automatic weapon. You don't need an AK-47 to kill a bear. You need one to kill a lot of people in a very short amount of time (e.g. the Tuscon shooting). I've heard gun rights advocates say, "Why don't you trust your fellow American citizens with guns?" To them I say, "If you trust them so much, why do you feel like you need a gun?"
Their logic is idiotic, if you can even call it logic. Here's an example: once Gaddafi was removed from power in Libya and the military was removed from the equation, there were two civilian armies fighting each other. NATO was faced with a problem: which army do you arm? By NRA "logic", you arm both armies because if they both have guns, then no one will get hurt because they will both be afraid of the other side's guns. WRONG. Both sides get hurt, and a helluva lot of people end up dead. People may kill people, but they wouldn't do it nearly so much if they didn't have easily obtained, poorly regulated firearms to make it so easy.
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