{"id":2839,"date":"2015-11-04T22:42:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T22:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fightfast.com\/blog\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2021-04-05T20:03:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T20:03:53","slug":"mass-shootings-and-the-2nd-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/mass-shootings-and-the-2nd-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass Shootings and The 2nd Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freedom, Tolerance and \u201cSelf-Governing\u201d Responsibilities<\/h3>\nAs you know, TRS is located in what I refer to as the People\u2019s Republic of Kalifornia. This is my tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that whatever socialist agenda you might fear is being perpetuated upon the nation as a whole, California is typically the first to embolden any right-infringing experiment due to the overwhelming number of Progressives (that\u2019s the new label for Liberals in today\u2019s world) that hang on our state from the two ends.\n\nLet me move on to the movement of the moment, which is Gun Control legislation.<\/strong>\n

Mass Shootings...<\/h3>\nIt seems odd to me that while guns have been available and legal for generations here in the USA, school and work shootings appear to be a fairly recent phenomenon. While there may certainly be earlier circumstances, Columbine CO seems to be the first one that absolutely shocked the nation and grabbed the attention of every parent that has ever sent a kid off to school. Much like JFK in \u201963, our innocence was lost.\n\nWe no longer felt safe in a place where we should feel safe. More on that to come.\n\nI have to wonder if the increase in frequency of such appalling crimes has some measure of copycat motivation, knowing full well that the media will cover the event and the perpetrators name becomes known in seconds across the planet.\n\nNo doubt, there are more questions than answers when it comes to the increasing frequency of mass shootings.\n\nLike all Americans... like all humans... I ponder the \u201cwhy\u201d regarding these events.\n\nPersonally, I question the morality of our culture. What was considered decent and acceptable 40 or 50 years ago is no longer held as the standard. Change happens, like it or not. If you consider the nature of content you can access via television, radio, print, billboards and of course, the internet, most all of it is relatively uncensored.\n\nOur brains overload through an absolute orgy of access to ANY topic\/image. Violence, sex, extremist opinions from any theology or philosophy\u2026 we can access and become influenced by them all in an instant. Enter the \u201cgoogle world\u201d.\n\nMurders on television and movies are not hinted at, they are graphically displayed and the next film maker has to up-the-ante in order to satisfy our desire for the extreme. To illustrate my point, go to a gamers store and spend 3 to 5 minutes watching someone play the Grand Theft Auto<\/em><\/strong> video game.\n\nWe are long way from Mayberry and we certainly aren\u2019t in Kansas any longer either.\n\nOur culture erodes the value and purpose of life.\n\nIs this, at least in part, a contributing factor to the increase in frequency of mass shootings? You decide.\n\nThe point is, freedoms come with responsibility. This orgy of extreme content comes with a personal responsibility to \u201cself-govern<\/strong>\u201d what you access and consume. It requires a personal mission statement to have been thought through, pondered, weighed and executed prior to exposure\u2026 lest you become little more than the drifting feather at the start of Forrest Gump, simply awaiting a breeze to act upon it.\n\nThe founding fathers arranged for a separation of church and state, and while drafting our precious Constitution the overwhelming theology of the time was the Judeo Christian theology. Adherence was not mandated due to that whole Freedom of Religion foundational principle. Regardless, this philosophy provided an unlegislated understanding of acceptable moral behavior.\n\nIt provided a commonality of mutually understood civil behavior.\n\nCurrently, it would seem the overall % of subscribers to this unlegislated common code has diminished.\n\nSome may say, we evolve\u2026 we get smarter\u2026 our technology advances\u2026 that we progress. Well, in the name of progress<\/strong>\u2026 with access granted through freedoms<\/strong>\u2026 we pay an extreme price for tolerance<\/strong>.\n\nFreedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly give a US Citizen the right to burn the flag at a public park. A freedom and right achieved by the sacrifice of others who have gone before you and fought, so many paying the ultimate price of death, for that freedom you express desecrating what they hold most dear and precious. Ironic.\n\nFreedom of Religion convinces us to tolerate any religion or philosophy even if it teaches extremist views and perpetuates intolerance of any other religion\/philosophy\u2026 to the point of directly advocating for the murder and elimination of anyone who disagrees. The freedom provided yields the motive they have to kill those providing it.\n\nAgain, ironic! Woefully so.\n\nA conspiracy theorist may argue that these mass shootings are being orchestrated by those that wish to take our rights, our freedoms and our guns away. While I\u2019m personally convinced there may be a spiritual reality to such a claim, on the surface I find this would be a tough measure to recruit, train and orchestrate for an individual or some radical group.\n\nHere\u2019s an unfortunate truth however\u2026 Americans, by and large, have gotten spoiled and comfortable with the expected \u201ccivility\u201d of our society. While many of our grandparents came from a generation of understood norms and handshake agreements\/contracts, in today\u2019s world PR campaigns spouting \u201csound bite\u201d ethics drive policy, media seeks to illustrate our divides to appeal and gain viewership and the substantive philosophy which provided that fabric of civil behavior is replaced with selfish indulgences for temporary extremist attention.\n\nIn short, dependence upon a common civility in the United States today is a na\u00efve position and will result in you becoming a victim or your own naivet\u00e9.\n\nIt is an individual\u2019s responsibility to provide for their own defense.\n\nOur 2nd Amendment rights are more important than ever as we \u201cprogress\u201d in a society that has an ever decreasing sense of morals and a sense of the value of life. While some in our society will attempt to blame guns for these tragedies\u2026 and they are serious tragedies\u2026 the truth is that our guns aren\u2019t defective, some of our people are defective.\n\nMental illness may be a large culprit. I happen to be a Registered Nurse and I see first-hand the role mental illness and its associated lack of resources play in this dialogue\/topic. However, our culture of apathy with decreasing moral fabric plays a significant role also.\n\nThere are no easy answers.\n\nThe debate will roll forward. Statistics will be thrown about to support all sides and positions. Remember this however, our government, \u201cof, for and by the people\u201d is, in fact, an experiment. Your rights afforded by the 2nd amendment are as strong as your support thereof.  Nobody, from either side of the argument, wants to see even a single innocent person harmed or killed by the acts of a lunatic.\n\nIf America continues its experimental pattern, any solution chosen will involve compromise. Now there\u2019s a dirty word that no one likes to spout any longer. 2nd amendment supporters, current and past, have not trusted Big Brother and little convinces me that this mindset is changing. Yet, like Hamilton and Burr with their infamous duel, compromise is the art of forming America and American values.\n\nEach side will likely label the result, \u201cstupid and\/or foolish\u201d. But you and I, we\u2019re the ones who have to drop our kids off at school and want to see a movie in a theatre without the risk of being a victim of the next mass shooting. The unfortunate truth is that no amount of legislation can remove all risk from life.\n\nWhen I hear \u201cprogressives\u201d speak of the evils of guns, my immediate thoughts transfer to that of my lovely wife and three teenage kids. I\u2019ll do anything to protect them from harm. If they\u2026 the progressives\u2026 want to depend upon the imaginary blanket of civility for protection, God bless them for their perception of their world. While they\u2019re enjoying their cocktail of fantasy mixed with reality\u2026 I\u2019ll be preparing for the reality of mine whereby I maintain the right to respond to, and remove the threat of harm\/danger.\n\nSupport the 2nd.\nBob Pierce","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom, Tolerance and \u201cSelf-Governing\u201d Responsibilities As you know, TRS is located in what I refer to as the People\u2019s Republic of Kalifornia. This is my tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that whatever socialist agenda you might fear is being perpetuated upon the nation as a whole, California is typically the first to embolden any right-infringing Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55,127,129,216,218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12910,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/12910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}