Common Ground on Gun Control?

By Frank Jack Fiamingo

New Jersey –-(Ammoland.com)- Most people will acknowledge that it is not guns but rather the misuse of guns that is the real problem.

I believe that most “gun control” advocates simply want to prevent the loss of innocent life and that those of us who use firearms for sport, hunting, recreation, and defense of self and family abhor the initiation of violence.

We all want the same thing; to see an end to the senseless slaughter. There is more common ground than one might at first suspect.

The difficulty revolves around how different people believe we can and should solve the actual problem of violence.

I am sure we would all be just as horrified if a murderer used a bomb, a machete, or a gun. Perhaps we all need to focus on what drives a person to kill rather than on how they achieve their goal. The result is always the same. Families will never again share the joy of life with their murdered loved ones. They are left to mourn and grieve while trying to understand the incomprehensible.

All the rhetoric in the world will not solve the real problem. There are truly evil people in the world who murder for their own reasons. Some kill for gain, some to avoid responsibility, and (as much as it sickens rational people), some individuals kill because they enjoy it. In many cases, I am sure the murderer is simply deranged.

A significant reason why we cannot prevent these murders is simply that we cannot predict them. Although it is not common, a person who appears perfectly normal one day, may experience a break from reality, choose a weapon and begin murdering people for absolutely no reason. We often have no indication whatsoever of who that person might be. The arm-chair analysts who perform the post mortems on these events are never there the day before to prevent them.

If they were, we would not need to have this conversation.

Some people believe that you can reduce the number of murders by controlling both the availability and the type of firearms people are allowed to possess. The problem is that although this approach MIGHT possibly prevent a murderer from using a particular firearm to commit his crime, it is FAR from a guarantee that he or she will not find another method of creating mayhem. In fact, since only those individuals who are sane and responsible follow the dictates of firearms regulations, it is unlikely that laws controlling the LEGAL access to firearms would prevent the murderer from using them.

You might say, “Well it can’t hurt”, but that is not accurate. It can and does hurt to prevent legal access to firearms to a woman seeking to protect her body from a much larger assailant or to a parent protecting his or her family from a neighborhood gang intent on stealing the family car and raping the occupants. I find it difficult to believe that THAT is the intent of those who are trying to PREVENT the murder of innocent people. That just doesn’t make any sense.

I did not write this essay with the illusion that I could single handedly solve the problem of “gun control” in New Jersey or across the nation. I am hoping that it will be possible to open up some real productive dialogue on how we can work together with people who hold various positions on this issue to make some progress toward finding some practical solutions. Perhaps there is no way to prevent random acts of violence but perhaps we can try to identify those instances where there are telltale signs; perhaps not. I don’t know if that is possible but what I do know is that it is just as unproductive to shout “FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!” as it is to shout “GUNS KILL!”.

I invite anyone with a constructive opinion on these issues to feel free to contact me. Let’s at least think about the problem constructively and try to avoid the usual rhetoric. We already know THAT doesn’t work. Everyone seems to continue to offer the same arguments expecting different results. Perhaps we are all missing something.

About New Jersey Second Amendment Society

New Jersey Second Amendment Society – Our mission is to promote the free exercise of Second Amendment rights within the community and Legislature of New Jersey, to educate the community regarding the enjoyable, safe, and responsible use of firearms, and to engender a sense of camaraderie and fellowship among the members and their families. Visit: www.nj2as.com