Chicago gun violence

The news is always depressing. Chicago reported more than 50 shootings over the weekend. I am a strong supporter of the Constitution. At the time it was written, ordinary people needed guns to hunt for food and to protect themselves and their families. Originally there wasn’t an army to protect the settlers and as the more and more settlers moved onto Indian lands, the conflict grew. Indians had to protect themselves against the settlers and settlers had to protect themselves against the Indians. The French sponsored Indian attacks on English held territory and the English sponsored Indian attacks on French and Spanish held territory.

The desire for more and our willingness to kill to take land or to keep land grew as our desires grew.

The gangs of today want more. They want the territory of other gangs and to control the flow of drugs, prostitution, gambling, and protection. Like in the past, violence is seen as a means to an end. Guns are readily available to almost anyone who wants one. If you can’t buy one legally, you can buy one on the black market.
Our Constitutional right to bear arms is for self defense and for hunting. It isn’t to commit crimes or to kill for fun and score points with gangs. How do we keep our Constitutional freedom and maintain a civil society where gun violence isn’t just another event in the daily lives of citizens. How do we keep illegal guns off the streets and out of the hands of teens and children? We must address these issues.

Charlton Heston’s comment that they would pull his gun from his “cold dead hands” is fine if you are an old man who has lived a reasonable life but it isn’t a good creed for teenagers. With enough hormones and undeveloped frontal lobes they will use emotion instead of logic and are more prone to glorify the use of violence.

Look at the games teenagers play. The more violent the better! They are stimulated by and fascinated with violence. Frequently Mom and Dad are absent or they work two jobs to support the family. As a result, teenagers are, more often than not, unsupervised and left to roam in the afternoons after school, on weekends and during the summer. This is a prescription for trouble.

As a nation, we must address the increasing use of guns in violent crimes, the use of guns by children and teenagers and the sale of illegal guns on the black market.