This whole gun law mess
It’s like clock work. A shooting happens and before I see it on the news, I find out about it from some politician trying to push their agenda. I hop onto social media and enter a fierce market of repeated ideas. Echochambers pop out of nowhere. Memes flood my friends walls. Statistics are spat out only to be countered by people claiming they are inept statistics. Logical fallacies abound. Emotional arguments that make no sense get repeated constantly. It happens every single time.
While the squabbling goes on, I tend to sit back and think. I read the comments and get a sense of how the rabble rousers are moving. In the midst of the chaos, I am calm because I am a free thinker. A skeptic. My knee-jerk reaction is to not allow myself to fall to emotional appeals or peer pressure… but to instead become offended at any medium trying to force me to believe what they want me to believe.
The one thing that has never changed is that when our federal government gets to take freedom from us, it doesn’t give it back. So when I see our media attempt to create an emotional appeal in order to entice Americans to give away freedoms to the government, I cringe. These pleas are almost always a simple “blank check” to hand over to the government.
When I say “blank check”, I mean that advocates for gun laws will almost always just say “we need better gun laws”. What does that mean?! When you have people like Rosie O'donnell publicly announcing her opinion that legal gun owners should be jailed, it’s easy to see how this can be taken too far really fast. When our government gets public consent to take our freedoms, it’s a blood frenzy.
Curious, I began asking people on social media a single question: “If you could change our gun laws, what would you change?”. The responses would have been funny had it not been so horrifying. I was told that they would make automatic weapons illegal (they ALREADY ARE). I was told that people that can’t mentally handle having a gun should be screened (already in effect!). Where things got shady, however, was when people started saying that the government should keep lists on people. How these lists are formed was never declared.
So not only did these gun control advocates show me that they didn’t know what they were talking about, but they also demonstrated openly and proudly that they were fine with blindly handing these powers over to the government. After all, everyone knows the government is trustworthy, right? No.
So if only 3% of Americans believe that the government will almost always do the right thing when it comes to creating legislation that flies in the face of our bill of rights, why do they so blindly give our freedom away to our government?
Emotional appeal and lack of understanding. We are taught that the only way to end children getting shot is to restrict gun owners. This idea is not only foolish, but dangerous as well because of one simple tautology: criminals don’t obey laws.
Even more, let’s enter the mind of a mass shooter. As a mass shooter getting ready to perform a shooting, which of these signs would you rather see at your target area?
or 
Do you know why? Because people (even criminals) don’t like to get shot. It fucking hurts.
I say all of this while at the same time realizing that I am changing no minds. This is common rhetoric at this point. It’s like trying to convince an alcoholic that alcohol is bad for them and harms their liver. They know. My words will not convince anyone at this point. But I still have hope.
In 2020 Kokesh will probably win the presidency. He will then dissolve the federal government thus transferring the power back to the states. This means that gun control advocates can have their states where they have very strict gun control... like Chicago, for instance. Meanwhile, other states can maintain their freedom. Since people will be able to then vote with their feet by moving to their preferred state and laws, these ideas can openly compete. If the “gun law” pushers are correct, other states will see it and thusly adopt these proven ideals. If freedom is what is required, then “gun law” states will see it and change accordingly.
Squabbling on the internet won’t make America evolve to how it should. Decentralizing power and actually seeing results without forcing everyone else to give up their freedom is the answer. If you want to protect the children in whatever way ACTUALLY WORKS, vote Kokesh 2020. Let’s heal this nation together.
-Michael P. Wood
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The guns really aren't the problem. People are just fucked in the head these days. It's a side effect of our culture. I would possibly support legislation that increased the legal age for purchasing a semi-auto weapon to age 25.
What happens at age 25? Why not 24 or 26?
What would your magical legislation solve, exactly?
It would make it harder for people under 25 to purchase a semi-automatic firearm. The majority of school shooters are under 25.
Virginia Tech - Age 23
Sandy Hook - Age 20
Stoneman Douglas- Age 19
Columbine - Age 17, 18
just to name a few
You're such an agist lol
So you've managed to pigeon hole the problem to 'school shootings' when the vast majority of murders are not school shootings. And this is all theorized under the assumption that there is no black market for semi-automatic rifles or they cannot make straw purchases. Someone who plans to commit mass murder doesn't care how difficult you make it. If there's a will there's a way. The only effect your legislation will have is to disenfranchise the vast majority of under 25 who aren't violent and criminally inclined.
The majority of school shooters are under 90. Why not set your arbitrary age limit there?
You know what I mean. It's not arbitrary. The brain isn't fully developed until 25.
I was just yanking your chain. But I still don't agree with you :)
Lol the brain doesn't magically stop developing at 25. Neuroscience doesn't assign an exact universal age at which the brain stops developing and the studies on this matter report conflicting results, with some reporting development of the prefrontal cortex into the 30s and 40s.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/8204782/Brain-only-fully-matures-in-middle-age-claims-neuroscientist.html
Your statement is equivalent to saying that everyone reaches puberty at 13.
He's right. There is increasing evidence that neuroplasticity can be retained into old age. I think LSD is a good way to make it happen.
At this point I can't tell who is replying to who.
I'm agreeing with your post about neuroscience. I also agree with everything else you've written.
What about semi auto pistols?
It's 2018 dude, people can 'identity' as being 25..
Well said. Resteemed
Liberals sure do love the prison industrial complex. They want to create legislation that makes it more profitable.
Good article with more deeper thoughts than most. I came up with an idea using blockchain that requires no government. The idea is to just track it: https://steemit.com/weapons/@realstep/marijuana-versus-bullets
Government is culturally influential, and law is a government's statement of which actions it claims justify force against citizens. Outlawing more things promotes a culture in which using force against others is more acceptable and requires less justification.
Making dissent also a crime against the state..
Very well said. Re-steemed, upvoted and followed.
It's largely a wedge issue that is used to fire up support for one side or the other.
Aside from constutional issues, I personally don't support gun control because I don't like the idea of telling people what to do. If someone isn't hurting anyone then let them have their gun. It's the same reason I do not support the drug war.
In fact, I would argue that we could make a lot of progress in stopping gun violence by changing our drug laws but that is a different topic for a different time. Upvoted and followed.
I support mandatory gun ownership, plus firearm and gun safety being taught in school but what the hell, students today have difficulty adding, subtracting, or forming complete sentences. They do however seem to have a good grasp on crying and demanding others give them whatever they want for free. I mean after all the government should make a law raising the minimum wage to $125.99/hr ...whaaaaa
Lol sadly very accurate
It's not difficult at all to imagine how that shooting would have played out if say 50% of the students were part of a well armed, well trained militia. The guy might have got one or two shots off and would have been laying dead on the floor and all those other kids would still be alive today.
And they'd be hero's. Public school is doing a lot of harm to our culture
Totally agree, and I also am fighting for the same solution. Decentralization and localization are the key to getting out of this mess. Each day that goes on the status quo seems more and more like it's from the stone age. It can't last forever right?
Love your optimism on kokesh. That would be a very nice future.