Don't Just Ban All Guns, Ban All Vehicles - Florida Agenda

With the dozens of college campus shooting in the news we are hearing a misguided outcry for more gun control.

As a Gay man who happens to be a U.S. Marine Corp Vietnam Veteran and a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) since 1965, I would like to thoughtfully address this wrong-headedness inside the Gay community.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, there are about 300 million guns in the United States, and approximately 12,500 homicides by firearms in 2013.

According to the Department of Transportation there were 250 million passenger vehicles in the United States and 35,200 fatal traffic accidents, or three times as many vehicle related deaths as gun homicides.

Following the conclusion of the vociferousness “ban-all-guns, only-the-police-should-have them” voices in our community, we should also ban all automobiles.

Yet, history tells us taking away guns from law-abiding citizens is a disaster leading to crimes against humanity and mass murders by governments.

Hitler’s Nazi Socialist Party told the German people to turn in their guns because the government would protect them. Then they started putting the Jewish, Gays, and many other groups in the trains to the Holocaust. Tens of millions then died at the hands of the governments who had all the guns.

Here’s the best option: In a society that teaches no values, we should support the Second Amendment value of private gun ownership for all law-abiding citizens, including vulnerable Gays who need them as well. The reason? Throughout our nation where there are conceal and carry permits, violent crime drops dramatically. Where there is strict gun control, only the criminals get possession of them and rule the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, etc.

Is it any wonder that women of all color have led the nation in new gun purchases for the past two decades? It would behoove Gay people to consider the same given the violent crime we are confronted with, too.

All due respect to the President, the American people think otherwise, and we in the Gay community need to think long and hard before jettisoning our constitutional rights to bear arms for our own protection of family and property.

Sincerely, Kenneth Blunk
Boynton Beach, FL

Editor’s note: Gun control advocates typically favor restrictions on assault-style rifles, not all guns in general. The number of vehicular deaths per year averages 1.3 million, not 32,500, but those deaths are traditionally accidental in nature. Gun deaths are likely to be intentional. Big difference. There is absolutely no truth to the oft-repeated story that Hitler’s Nazi told German to turn in their guns. In truth, the Nazis allowed private gun ownership, with the notable exception of Jews. However, allowing Jews to carry weapons likely would have had no impact on their destiny given that there were just over six million Jews who lived and died in Germany during World War II, at a time when there were 18 million well-armed Gestapo.

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