I wanted to spend a little time talking about my thoughts on gun control in light of the recent events in Las Vegas. I do not know of a good place to start aside from I feel for the victims of the shooting, their families and the country. I have been seeing and hearing a lot from politicians following the events. Of course, as with all politicians you agree with some of it and you do not agree with some of it. I do not recall a time or politician where I thought to myself, “This person thinks just like me.” I’m not that out of touch with reality.

Some of the most disturbing voices are trying to politicize this tragedy for personal and political gain. Others try to tell me that I don’t care as much as they do and because I don’t feel what they feel I’m partly responsible for what happened. I’ll be counted among the chorus in saying,  the entire nation is grieving and looking for the whys and hows, but because I’m not wearing my emotions on my sleeve like some doesn’t make me a heartless monster partially responsible for killing all those people. The disagreements are not coming from how we all feel. The disagreement is coming from how policy should change.

We have laws that, when enforced, do a good job of keeping guns away from people who should not have them. In like manner, none of the laws that are in place would have prevented this massacre. When we ask ourselves what could have prevented this we would have to entertain a policy that would take away or prevent firearm ownership in the United States. With no history of crime, mental condition, extremism…no red flags, how would we have prevented this?

We discuss our 2^nd amendment quite a bit in this country and that’s a good thing. Some might suggest that our forefathers could not have imagined someone standing on a building raining death upon a crowd of innocent people. That is true, just as true as they believed the citizens of the United State should own military grade weapons to defend themselves and their country. Military grade weapons you say? Yes, in their day the musket was military grade and that is what they had in mind while writing the amendment. Citizens in the country today do not have access to military grade weapons without having to pay a lot of money and having to go through some pretty serious scrutiny from the government.

While I believe our government over reaches its authority to dictate to its citizens on occasion, if we want to have a change in policy we could discuss the legality or need for items like bump stocks or other apparatus that allow simulated automatic fire. It’s not a perfect policy by my account and having the government telling me what I need and don’t need disagrees with my inner constitution, but I can see it as a starting point.

Wouldn’t it be great to not be seen as a heartless contributor to these killings because I disagree with the proposed policy changes? Furthermore, what could have prevented this aside from steps leading to the disarming of the law abiding American population? We all feel moved by the loss of life and terrible nature of these murders and were are not all monsters. I have yet to hear a proposal from the gun control advocates that would have made a difference. And I don’t base my rights on emotions or the emotions of others. It is a sad world indeed when differing opinions give others the right to personally attack and judge others from their moral superiority. Moreover, this view is propagated and supported by so many in positions of “power” or “authority”.