Happiness is a warm...

I am fond of saying things like "everyone, and I mean everyone, is FOR gun control...We only differ on where we propose to draw the line."

I am old enough (though still proudly immature!) to remember the pervasive paranoia of the cold war. "Mutually assured nuclear destruction" was supposed to make us feel safer.

Right!

The presidents of antagonistic countries go about their daily routine along with a guy who has a briefcase hancuffed to his arm that contains the "red button" that can essentially destroy life on this planet if pushed." This was supposed to make us safe from nuclear war? If I die, you die. Well on some levels it makes sense...but only in a world populated entirely by the sane.

We still have this button in a briefcase. I was thinking about the presidents that have had the power to destroy the world and how safe I felt with each one's finger on the trigger:

Eisenhower... Very safe
Kennedy... sorta safe but not really
Johnson ... Very safe...
(man was no fool though he did escalate that "fight them over there" thing in the sixties)
Nixon... The world was safe....not so, you personally... a deeply cowardly man
Ford... Nice guy, wasn't around long enough to say
Carter... Totally safe
Reagan... No way safe...asleep at the wheel, surrounded by crazies
Bush one... Safe...to greedy to mess things up
Clinton... Safe...sense of self preservation too highly developed
Bush again... no way safe...Stupid man surrounded by megalomaniacs

I relate arms control to going into a bar. Which bar would you feel safest in?

Guns required?...No guns allowed?

How about a "No Smoking" pub?...A cigar bar?

A Republican Bar?...A Democrat Bar?

I got pulled over by a State trouper Wednesday for speeding...Who me? And as he walked up to my car (passenger side, interestingly) I am sure he could see my "Blue person in a Red State" bumper sticker. Think he felt more...or less safe than if the bumper read "They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers?"

Or how about "Sorry for weaving...I'm reloading!"

Same thing with all forms of weapons. I have a few and I'm a fair shot. I consider a gun a tool for specific uses but I don't feel safer when I consider a room full of people where everyone has the weapon of their choice loaded and handy. I frankly cannot escape the concept that everyone in the room is safest when no one has a weapon.

This comes up because Florida is considering a law that would prevent employers from banning guns in the workplace. Are they crazy?

The most intense of the gun people don't see the problem.

I do!

I draw the line a little closer to the "Well regulated militia" end of things and well back from everyone in the bar having an Uzi.

Peace,

Steve


*****

What? A Gun Guy quote that sounds thoughtful and considerate? What's up with that?
"The Founding Fathers added the right to bear arms to the Constitution to ensure “a well regulated militia.” They didn’t do it to create a cramped, suspicious society in which every citizen keeps every other one in check through the tacit threat of blowing them away."


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