Sunday, July 22, 2012

Freedom, responsibility and gun control

      When a person or group of people can't act responsibly their freedoms must be limited.  It seems we as a nation have long crossed that line when it comes to the freedom to own assault weapons.  The young man who shot 70 and killed 12 in Aurora, Colorado owned a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. This shooter was able to purchase the weapons at local gun stores. He also had recently purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet.
    Interesting that our neighbor to the south, Mexico, would like the USA to have tighter gun controls (Mexico urges U.S. to review gun laws after Colorado shooting).  Seems they're tired of our seemingly free flow of weapons into their nation and the associated violence.
      I discovered the following related statistics from an ABC news website, Gun Deaths: A familiar American Experience...
     A study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery found that the gun murder rate in the U.S. is almost 20 times higher than the next 22 richest and most populous nations combined..... Among the world’s 23 wealthiest countries, 80 percent of all gun deaths are American deaths and 87 percent of all kids killed by guns are American kids.
     Contrary to what National Rifle Association (NRA) might like us to believe, free enterprise without responsible limits can be extremely dangerous.  As this recent tragedy reminds us, we have very little "domestic security" from gun violence in the Wild West, gun toting USA.  Somehow I don't sleep better knowing there are about 300 million firearms floating around in the hands of our citizens.

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