Why do the police shoot people?
Seems like a pretty simple question, but through this perhaps naive query comes a myriad of answers, we guess.
However, we keep thinking that the base reason as to why police shoot people is because they are afraid of being shot themselves. Doesn't that make too much sense?
As we've said before in this column, we as an American society have been completely irresponsible with gun ownership. The senseless gun violence of individual on individual and of course police on civilian, especially African-American males is out of control. It is certainly not what we would consider advanced citizenry.
America is in complete gun denial. Instead of doing anything to stem the tide, we have forty-five states that allow open carrying of handguns. For what purpose is this necessary? Protection? Seems like when you shoot someone with a handgun, you're either going to jail or you'll be shot and killed yourself. Some protection.
The can be no dialogue when shots are being fired so saying that we need to have a dialogue is a sadly futile exercise.
Some would say that it is their God-given right to own a gun. To that we would remind that killing another person is a mortal sin; we read that somewhere. If that is the case then why would God put in your hand the instrument to commit that mortal sin?
With regard to Second Amendment, the phrase that rings out is "well-regulated militia." We've allowed our society to become militarized, hence we are the militia, but we are certainly not well-regulated. It has to change or it will only get worse, which you can take as fact.
Lastly, well-regulated doesn't necessarily mean denying people ownership, and we're not for that. But what it should mean is that you have to jump through hoops to get one just like there are certain requirements to own a car.
But who are we kidding? Sensible and fair gun laws in this country are just a fantasy just like it's fantasy that individuals and police will stop shooting.
This one base answer is right in front of our faces, so big that we can't even see it.
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