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Ethics/Animals
 
Hunting is Murder on Animals
Part XV -- Laying Down Our Guns Part II
Steve in studio

Since hunting is not a worthwhile activity, and the Constitution does not grant any rights to indviduals to keep and bear arms, what reasons are we left with to allow guns in our society? There are only three:

  1. Gun collecting
  2. Target practice
  3. Protection


Gun collecting and target practice are activities that are too frivolous to offset the harm done to society by the presence of guns. But if some people do consider them indespensible activities, gun museums and target centers could be set up where the guns would be kept under tight security. That way no one would have to keep guns at home.

As far as protection goes, most police officers will advise you that keeping a gun for protection is not a good idea.

Introducing a gun into a violent or potentially violent situation usually just makes matters worse. One study, compiled from FBI statistics, showed that a gun is 118 times more likely to be used in a murder, suicide, or fatal accident than it will ever be used to kill a criminal.

Even the NRA advises that guns kept at home be locked up unloaded, and that the ammunition be locked up in a separate place. With these restrictions, a gun would not be readily available for protection anyway. Few robbers would wait around patiently while the homeowner stumbled around with his keys to retrieve his gun and ammunition. The NRA's own Director of Training Activities said it best in an interview for the New York Times:

Simply don't allow a loaded gun in the house -- even for protection. It's far too easy in the dark to shoot down a member of your own family in mistake for a burglar. It happens over and over. And an intruder, seeing you armed, is much more likely to shoot you.

And Sargent Jess C. Gonzalez, a 20 year veteran of the Los Angeles Department's Robbery Division, had this to say:

Having a gun for protection only gives you a false sense of security. Many people think that if a criminal knows you're armed he won't bother you. Well, criminals know that most liquor store owners are armed, and yet they are the ones most liable to be held up. The liquor store owner has all the odds against him. For one thing, the criminal has the drop on him. When someone comes to commit a crime the element of surprise is on his side. He is alert, armed, and ready to shoot. All he has to do is pull the trigger and you're dead. In many cases the store owner doesn't even have the chance to reach for his gun.

All right, so this type of protection is mere wishful thinking upon examination. But what about protecting our country from communists? In this nuclear age an armed civilian population is worthless. Rifles will never protect us from an imagined communist takeover, nor are they needed.

History has shown us from the sterling examples of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and General Kutuzov that the greatest accomplishments can be had through non-violence and the simple unwillingness to capitulate to an invading power.

Upon examination we are left with no reasons to permit guns in our society. No guns -- not even hunters' guns -- means no guns for criminals to steal, and no guns for family and friends to murder each other with, and no guns to accidentally go off, and no guns to murder animals with.
(Steve breaks gun over his knee.)
Steve in studio breaking gun over his knee

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Steve in studio breaking gun over his knee
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