Busy day for blogging - every time I turn around more melodrama pops up.
Take this for instance!
This "Tea Party" group (and that is irrelevant) has apparently been marching in this July 4th parade with their rifles for many years without incident. They are law-abiding citizens. But this year; well, the SHTF! What is the big deal? Is this the new America where we have to continually deal with, cater to and, thereby, reinforce melodramatic and idiotic BS? Perhaps the "community" is polarized because some number of them are just plain ignorant and immature and no one will dare confront this as a way to educate them. Perhaps it is because some number of ignorant people want to limit the rights of others. When did this become a country by of and for scared, ignorant children?
It is well known that allowing organisms (including people) to avoid the things they fear does nothing to eliminate that fear, does nothing to "educate" them on the irrationality of that fear. In fact, the reduction in aversive arousal that accompanies avoidance is reinforcing phobic behavior. In such cases, one of the best treatments available is exposure; someone who has a fear of snakes can learn to overcome it by not avoiding it, but through gradual exposure to that stimulus without negative consequences until the arousal diminishes (basically).
So what's that got to do with this foolishness?
Well, as long as we keep letting the irrational fears of those with hoplophobia determine what the rest of us can do, we will continue to allow them to avoid reality and feed their fears. If we keep agreeing with them that it would just be too dangerous to let a group of law-abiding citizens, who have done so in the past, to march with unarmed rifles, then we are simply retraining them over and over to maintain an irrational fear, to be ignorant.
When I talk to people I know, some of whom know that I am an advocate for gun rights and carry a firearm concealed whenever I legally can, and they express concerns about what might happen IF someone were to carry a gun "here" (they often seem to forget that someone IS carrying one - concealed, after all, means concealed), I like to remind them that the odds are that most places they go there is a firearm there. Given that the population in this state is about 20 million and there are about 1 million CWFL holders - an average of 1 in 20 will be carrying - even greater if we limit our candidates to adults as the law mandates.
Take your kids to McDonald's, chances are there is at least one legally carried and concealed firearm there. Going to the grocery store, out to lunch or dinner - likely there is an law-abiding armed citizen there - maybe me. Thing is, you do not even know it or who it may be. Scary, huh? But if the firearms themselves were so dangerous, if they had a "mind of their own" then you would have known this a long time ago. There IS a gun there...a legal gun carried by a responsible owner. And, strangely, what you do not know seems unable to hurt you. And, you know what...there may be a time when you will be glad it was there (like this).
What non-gun-owners do not realize is that the vast majority of legal gun carriers are less likely to start, engage, or escalate trouble because they know that there is a gun there. If I am out and someone acts like a jerk, I am much more likely to walk away because I know that there is the potential for a lethal force. I know that ego needs to take a backseat.
Please - put your ignorant prejudice phobia aside long enough to get educated. Stand back, let people march and express themselves, exercise their freedoms - you might find it is, at worst, a harmless exercise in liberty and, at best, you might learn something. Don't decide you are going to prove all the negative stereotypes of the ignorant anti-gun zealots out there. If you are going to make a decision on such an issue, make it as an informed person, an educated citizen - that is what our nation was founded upon - that is how government by the people was designed to work.
Don't be like the silly little girl from Ms. Magazine (yes, I know that is demeaning - it is what she deserves) who thought the best way to approach this issue was to put her ignorance on parade. She belittled herself and was nothing more than an unflattering caricature.
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