Guns

So, I really should be continuing to work on the revisions I have to do on my work this semester before I can turn in my portfolio, but I've been sitting here in the computer lab for over three hours now and I need a mental break from stuff I have to do.

On my way here to school, I was thinking about guns. In addition to the VT massacre a few weeks ago, there was a shooting in the metro area in which I live yesterday at a mall (really a strip mall with a Target and a Starbucks). I suppose I'm really writing this because I don't really have an opinion on guns and that confuses me. More like, I have too many conflicting opinions on guns and gun control to really have AN OPINION. (I really like having AN OPINION on a topic and getting to argue that with everyone I know.)

On the one hand, I'm what is commonly referred to as a damned dirty hippy in the blogosphere- in that I would really like it if we could live in a world where no one needed guns, except those people who liked to hunt their own food or hunted food for others. While I live in a house with guns and pass by our ornate gun cabinet everyday, I rarely, if ever, think about the fact that there are guns in my house. They aren't mine and I'm kinda scared to touch them, much less use one of them. When I lived in St Louis and they passed their Conceal Carry Law, I was relieved when I saw the "No Guns" sticker on the window of the concert venue I was about to enter. On an unconscious level, it bothers me to think that the person typing on the computer next to mine or the person next to me in line at the grocery store could be carrying a loaded weapon. I'm sure a part of this is that, with the exception of police officers, I always associate guns with criminals.

But then there is the other hand. On that hand lies all the arguments that seem perfectly reasonable for people to own and carry weapons, all the arguments that I have no real evidence to dispute, except for this little nagging in my gut. "The "No Gun" signs are like neon signs telling criminals that they can commit robbery and assault without immediate consequence because there is no one on the premises with a weapon to stop them." "The VT massacre could have been stopped with fewer deaths if those students were allowed to carry guns on their persons." "It is perfectly reasonable for a person to be able to defend themselves with a weapon if they are in danger and the kinds of people who would go through the training and process to get a conceal carry permit are not the type of people you have to worry about using their weapons offensively (any more than they might be if they couldn't get conceal carry permits)." I don't really have an answer to any of these arguments and, even if I did, I'm not sure that I would want to make them, as I like the idea of a free people having the liberty to arm and defend themselves.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

Enough rambling for awhile. Now I must get back to my papers. Ah, finals. I did not miss you.