by XDM45 on Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:16 pm
If the pro-gun people were as uninformed and as vehement in their cause against the anti-gunners as the anti-gunners are against pro-gunners and their guns; no more anti-gunners would exist because they're unarmed and we're not. Fortunately for everyone, most gun owners are sane, logical and responsible people who would never do such a thing. Could we? Sure. Anyone can do anything they want to do; but that doesn't mean that it's legal, advisable or anything else, but there's consequences. Sane, logical, responsible, law-abiding people consider things like consequences, especially so if their gun owners; whereas criminals and the mentally affected do not think of them. If they do, they don't care. We do. That's a big difference.
We aren't crazy, by and large. Most of us just want to shoot guns and be left alone whether it's a hobby, sport, defensive purposes, collection, or whatever reason we own guns, that's all we want. We just want to live our life peacefully, the same as any other average citizen, except that we own guns to help ensure that we can do that. We own them to protect ourselves, our lives, our family, and our nation from all threats and tyrannies.
It's not that the anti-gunners only hatred is for our guns; many of them hate us as a group and personally as well. It's not just enough to hate the thing, but also the person or people behind it as well. It's been that ways in other areas, not just with guns, the PMRC in the 1980s not only went after music (thing), but the musicians (people) who created it. They also misrepresented information, lied, spun facts and so forth, so this isn't a gun-exclusive issue by any means. It's in many different areas if you look for it, you'll see it.
I think a common mistake made is that people don't want to understand both the thing and more importantly, the people behind it. If the anti-gunners understood all of the various specifics and technicalities about firearms; would they still feel the way they do? Would they still try to ban them? Would the bills proposed be different? Maybe... but I don't believe they'd be different enough to not have a conflict between the two groups of people, the pro-gunners and the anti-gunners, if they only understood the thing (gun) and not the people (gun owners) behind it. Guns are static compared to people who are dynamic in nature. You can change a scope on a gun and you've changed the gun, but humans change every second. They are much more dynamic than any thing ever could be, and even harder to understand.
For anti-gunners to understand, they must understand us, not just our guns. I'm sure if you sat down with an individual, there would be a story of how their child was murdered, or they were in war, or their husband was killed, or some such thing which affected them so strongly for them to take this position; and this will vary with each individual you speak to, but something caused them to have this fear. That's really what it is...fear. When you can understand the person, when you can understand their fear, then you can understand the core from which they are coming from. You can find the seed which grew the tree which bares the fruit of their anti-gun opinion. For that to happen though, they would need to face that fear, and most people don't want to look within themselves too deeply. They don't want to face those inner demons, the things they don't like about themselves. They don't want to do the hard shadow work within, but that's where the personal growth comes from. We all have a dark side we need to face, but many won't do that.
For them to understand us, they would need to sit down and understand the same thing, our seed which grew our tree..... for some of us, it may also be fear. The person is afraid, was hurt and vowed that would never happen again, so they got a gun.... but I think that if the anti-gunner sat down and listened with an open mind and heart, just as we need to do with them, they would see that most gun owners don't operate out of fear, but love. We love ourselves, our country, our family, our freedom, our way of life, and we want to protect that. We love competing, shooting, hunting, the gun culture and community, extended family, our clubs, and so forth. At the foundation of everything, everything exists our of Love or Fear.
The key is understanding that. Understanding guns, but more importantly than understanding "things", is understanding people. Until people understand one another, there cannot be true common ground that is beyond tenuous at best and treacherous at worst. There will always be differences, but they will only increase with the lack of understanding, and so too will suffering. Humans are often personally vested in and polarized to a certain way of thinking, and then when they couple that with expectations, that causes problems between people. It gets to the point where they become so fundamental about something that the fight isn't really about what they are being fundamental over, and it instead turns into being fundamental for the same of fundamentalism. It's not about XYZ anymore, it's about that you didn't do XYZ in MY way. This of course is a position of fear.
I think 2A rights are important, I'm as pro-gun as the next person on here, and we all want people to be safe, happy, healthy, etc in life, so we agree... I think that if we look beneath this being just a gun issue, it's a much, much, much larger "human" issue that spans all areas of life.
All of the above is my opinion. It is not my intended to derail or have 33 page thread, so if you agree, cool. If not, cool too. I don't have a problem with either one, but I'm not going to get into a p-ing contest with anyone either.
Gnothi Seauton
I was pointing out facts that you two seem to say that "we" are the only ones doing the name calling. I don't care who starts what! Both sides needs to grow up and work together to get common sense laws passed. Both sides are being driven by emotions and that's whats making this ordeal harder than what it is. 
